Zaman ‘satisfied’ with performances in US, Canada

Pakistan squash player hopes his ranking will improve in January.

KARACHI:

The fast rising Farhan Zaman termed his tour of the US and Canada, where he played an overall six Professional Squash Association (PSA) tournaments, a satisfactory experience.

Zaman triumphed in one of the events while making it as far as the semi-finals of another one. He further qualified for the last-eight in two of the competitions whereas he had to taste defeats in the opening rounds of the remaining events.

“My recent tour has been really satisfactory for me because I got good exposure,” Zaman told The Express Tribune. “I feel that the results could have been better but sometimes luck doesn’t favour you during tough matches. However, looking at the experience I gained from this tour, it will help me a lot in future.”

Among the current lot of Pakistani players, Zaman and Danish Atlas Khan have been fast movers in the world rankings in the past 12 months.

Even though Zaman lost six places in the recently announced rankings, he is hopeful of improving his stature.

“My ranking will definitely improve from the 68th spot because I played in the final of the last tournament. I am hoping that when the new rankings are released in January, I’ll gain the much needed points and places.”



‘My focus in now on winning CNS event’

The youngster stressed that his focus would now be on winning the Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS) International Squash Championship scheduled to be held in Karachi from December 13-23 at the Roshan Khan Jahangir Khan Squash Complex under the auspices of Pakistan Navy.

A press conference, addressed by Commodore Saeed Ahmed, Commandant PNS Karsaz, regarding the event was held on Friday during which Ahmed paid his gratitude to the CNS and Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF).

The event will be conducted in four rounds; pre-qualifiers, qualifiers, main rounds and the finals. The pre-qualifying and qualifying rounds will be played from December 16-19, the main rounds on December 20 while the final will be played on December 23rd.

The prize money for the championship, which includes Pakistan’s top players such as Asian Champion Aamir Atlas Khan, Farhan Mehboob, Nasir Iqbal, Danish Atlas Khan, is worth $15,000.

It should also be mentioned here that organisers are claiming that a player from Nigeria will also participate in the tournament.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2013.

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