Toor withdraws from Qatar Classic

Pakistan’s top ranked woman squash player Maria Toor pulls out from Qatar Classic 2010.

KARACHI: Pakistan’s top ranked woman squash player Maria Toor pulled out from the Qatar Classic 2010 due to a chest infection that she caught three days ago.

Toor, the only player from Pakistan who would have participated in the $142,000 event, had planned to leave for Qatar on October 28 to participate in the event which starts on November 5. She said Qatar Classic would have been a great opportunity to test her fitness and training that she acquired before participating in the Asian Games.

“My goal was to work on my fitness and I wanted to test my performance in Qatar,” Toor told The Express Tribune. “But because of the infection I’ll not be able play for another week. I’m now focused on representing Pakistan in the Asian Games.”

Toor was part of the six-member Asian squad which includes Zoya Khalid, Muqaddas Ahsraf, Saima Shoukat, Roshna Mehboob and Riffat Khan, coached by Fahim Gul. They trained rigorously in Abottabad for two months ahead of the Asian Games. But Toor decided to walk out from the second phase of the camp that began on September 19. The 20-year-old, who left the camp without informing the Pakistan Squash Federation, chose to practise with world number two Sharon Wee from Malaysia.

She will rejoin the camp next week in Islamabad before leaving for China on November 11.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2010.