Danish cruises into squash semis

Pakistani to meet defending champion in world junior event.

KARACHI: Danish Atlas continued his impressive run at the WSF World Junior Squash Championship and set up a semi-final showdown against defending champion Marwan El Shorbagy after Jordan’s Ahmadal Sarraj 3-0 in his quater-final yesterday.

Atlas, the joint third-seed at the event, will meet the defending champion who has dispatched two Pakistan players already — Hamzah Bokhari in the last-16 and Nasir Iqbal in the quarter-finals at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha.

Danish beat Sarraj with scores of 11-6, 11-8, 11-6 in just 30 minutes. Pakistan coach Jamshed Gul said that Danish, who has been untested so far, will have to work hard for his points against the Egyptian.

“I’ve told Atlas to be patient,” Gul told The Express Tribune. “The idea is to frustrate Shorbagy with long rallies. If he does this, I’m sure he’ll win.”

Meanwhile, Shorbagy defeated Iqbal 3-1 in their quarter-final clash which lasted 53 minutes.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 11^th, 2012.