Daily Times

KARACHI: Hong Kong failed to cope with brilliant performance as they were beaten 2-0 by dazzling Pakistan in the men’s final of the Asian Squash Team Championships in Taiwan on Sunday. Tang Ming-hong and Max Lee Ho-yin lost their matches in the best-of-three final, meaning there was no need for Yip Tsz-fung to play his game. Lee was beaten 3-2 by Farhan Zaman 9-11, 12-10, 8-11, 11-7, 11-9 while Tang lost 3-0 (11-4, 11-7, 11-4) to Farhan Mehboob. Despite the loss, it was Hong Kong’s equal-best performance in the regional championships after their silver medals at the 1992 and 1996 events. In the women’s competition, Hong Kong had to settle for a joint bronze medal with Japan after losing to India in the semi-finals.

Pakistan through to final after India win: Earlier, Pakistan defeated arch-rivals India 2-1 in the semi-final of 18th Asian Championship on Saturday to set up a final clash with Hong Kong. In the clash of the top seeds, Farhan Zaman was beaten 3-2 by Harinder Pal Sandhu. It was Zaman who had a better opening in the match as he easily won the first frame, but Sandhu came back strongly to go 2-1 up. Zaman somehow managed to keep himself in the tie when he made it 2-2, but Sandhu comfortable won the decider to wrap the match with overall scores of 4-11, 11-8, 11-7, 10-12 and 11-6. Following the loss in the first game, it came down to Pakistan’s senior-most player Farhan Mehboob to keep his side in the contest. And he did not disappoint as he thrashed Velavan Senthilkumar 3-1 by a scoreline of 11-5, 11-5, 5-11 and 11-5. In the final match, Pakistan’s Tayyab Aslam emerged victorious in a five-setter against Kush Kumar despite initially trailing 2-1. Just like his teammate, Tayyab won the first frame but then conceded two and trailed 2-1. He, however, rose to the occasion as Pakistan stared at a semi-final defeat and went on to win 3-2 by a scoreline of 11-7, 11-13, 8-11, 13-11 and 11-3.