Pakistan’s emerging squash talent, Muhammad Asim Khan, defeated Malaysia’s Joachim Chuah in a thrilling contest to claim the World Championship Qualifying Event-Asia title in Hong Kong on Saturday.
The title victory propelled Asim into the PSA World Championships 2026, scheduled to be held from May 8 to 16 in Giza and will feature the world’s top squash players competing for a lucrative prize purse of $700,000. In an enthralling five-game final of the qualifying event, which lasted 82 minutes, Asim fought valiantly throughout to ultimately earn a narrow 3-2 victory, the expanded scores for which were 11-3, 13-11, 9-11, 3-11, 12-10.
Asim got off to a flying start to the summit clash, winning the first two games 11-3, 13-11, but Chuah staged a remarkable comeback, prevailing in the subsequent two games, to force the decider. In the decider, Asim held his nerves calm and narrowly clinched it 12-10 to round up a highly-rewarding victory, which helped him join compatriots Noor Zaman and Muhammad Ashab Irfan in qualifying for the mega event.
The 29-year-old kicked off his World Championship Qualifying Event – Asia campaign with a thumping 3-0 victory over Japan’s Naoki Hayashi, which earned him a berth in the quarter-finals. He faced tough competition in the quarter-finals against Hong Kong’s Chi Him Wong, but managed to register a 3-2 victory to qualify for the semi-final, where he received equal resistance from Ming Hong Tang but once again emerged victorious with the same scoreline and qualified for the final.