Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Squash Circuit-1 Championship for men and women will begin at the Mushaf Squash Complex here from May 8, the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) announced Saturday. The tournament will offer prize money of $10,000 for men and $5,000 for women players. All top ranked local players will feature in the event. According to the PSF, the men’s qualifying round will start on May 8 followed by the main round from May 10-13. In the women’s event, top 16 national players have been included for the main round only. The semifinals and finals of the event will be played on May 12 and 13 respectively.

Pakistan’s top players Farhan Zaman, Asim Khan, TayyabAslam, FarhanMehboob, Israr Ahmed, Khawaja Adil Maqbool, Zeeshan Khan, Umair Zaman, Amaad Fareed, Syed Ali Bukhari, Shoaib Hassan and wild card entrant Abbas Zeb will be in the main round of 16 players, where four qualifiers will join them. While in the women’s event there is no qualifying round rather a main draw of 16 players will be organised in which Noreena Shams, Anam Mustafa Aziz, Faiza Zafar, Madina Zafar, Zhahab Kamal, Noor ul Huda, Mogaddas Ashraf, Saima Shoukat, Amna Fayyaz, Riffat Khan, Zoya Khalid, Rushna Mehboob, Komal Khan, Noor-ul-Ain Ejaz, Aiman Shahbaz and Nimra Aqeel.

A spokesman for the PSF said the tournament was recognised by the Professional Squash Association. “And the beauty of this championship is that all Pakistan players are participating in it, which provides them an opportunity to improve their international ranking.” He said after this tournament the PSF would also organise an international event in Lahore in June and then in Karachi in July, and in these two tournaments only local players would participate.

Published in Daily Times, May 6^th 2018.