Aamir targets quarters at world event

Pakistan’s number one squash player hopeful of good campaign.

KARACHI: Pakistan number one Aamir Atlas Khan has set himself a target of reaching at least the quarter-finals of the PSA World Championship that begins on December 6 in Qatar.

The 22-year-old will be leaving for Qatar tomorrow and is hopeful of a good performance in the event.

“I’m aiming to reach the quarter-finals at least as that will help me get back into the top 30 after a recent slump in my ranking,” Khan told The Express Tribune. “Fitness wise, I’m on top of my game and the experience I gained in the US will prove vital going into an important event as I’ll be up against the best in the world.”

Amir has currently slipped five places to 46th in the PSA rankings but remained confident that he can break into the top 10. The player said that his rankings will improve once he starts playing more tournaments.

Meanwhile, the other Pakistani hopeful Farhan Mehboob is still waiting to get a confirmation of his participation after he was named among the reserves for the event.

He revealed that he was ranked in the reserves-7 category earlier but has now been promoted to the reserves-1 rank after a few players opted to pull out.

“I’m almost there but I still need some luck to make the qualifiers as one more player would have to pull out to make way for me,” said Mehboob. “These complications have occurred because of my poor ranking. Once, I used to be an automatic entry in any tournament when I was world number 16 but now my name is among the reserves because of being ranked 154th.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2012.