Squash: Atlas needs to raise the bar, says coach

Squash player’s 1st-round exit in the US disappoints Gul.

KARACHI: Pakistan’s head coach Jamshed Gul is satisfied with his junior players, but has warned the country’s top-ranked squash player Amir Atlas Khan to improve his fitness and produce better results.

Atlas was knocked out of the Delaware Investments US Open by world number nine Jaurens Jan Anjema in staright sets yesterday.

“My aim is to help Atlas get into the top-10 for the first time in his career so I wasn’t really impressed by his first-round exit,” Gul told The Express Tribune before adding that the score-line suggested Atlas improved as the game progressed.

Atlas, though, had to qualify for the main round and now has 12 days to prepare for his next event – the NetSuite Open in San Francisco.

“I’m hoping that he’s able to reach the semi-finals of one of his two remaining PSA tournaments which will help him break into the top-30.”

Meanwhile, Gul labelled fast-rising Nasir Iqbal the player to watch out for after his triumph in the Royal Lake Club Open in Kuala Lumpur.

Iqbal, ranked 121, beat India’s Harinder Pal Sandhu 3-0 in the final and also got the better of top Malaysian players in the earlier rounds.

“He is very fit and will very soon be in the top-50,” said Gul.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2012.