Squash: Nasir eyes world’s coveted top-30 list

Second seed to face Amir Atlas in tournament final today.

KARACHI: Touted as the country’s next big emerging player, Nasir Iqbal is aiming to break into the coveted list of the top 30 in the Professional Squash Association (PSA) by the end of this year.

Hailing from Bannu, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), Iqbal is set to lock horns with top-seed Amir Atlas in the final of the ongoing 1st DHA Karachi International Squash Championship today (Friday) and he is aiming to register his first win against Pakistan’s former number one player after losing his previous four matches against him.

“I’ve set a goal of finishing in the top 30 players of the world in 2013,” Iqbal told The Express Tribune after his semi-final win.

“Currently my focus is to win this championship after defeating Amir for the first time in a PSA tournament. Our last match was pretty close so I have every reason to believe that I can win this final.”

The second-seed defeated Farhan Zaman 3-1 with game scores of 11-7, 7-11, 11-6 and 11-6 in just 40 minutes while Amir had an easy outing against younger brother Danish, who got retired hurt due to an injury when the scores stood at 11-7 and 11-2 in favour of Amir.

Commenting on today’s final, Amir said that he was looking forward to a “competitive final”.



“Nasir is improving very quickly. So I expect him to stage a fight and I hope it will be a good final,” said Amir while adding that he is worried about an abductor injury.

‘Nasir, Danish are the future of Pakistan’

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) secretary Abdul Wahab Marwat said that Nasir and Danish Atlas were the next generation of top players of Pakistan, as well as Nosherwan Khan and Farhan Zaman.

“They can all achieve big things if they stay focussed on their game,” said Wahab.

Samar stuns top-seed Zoya

On the women’s front, Samar Anjum produced a major surprise by beating top-seed Zoya Khalid in straight sets with scores of 11-7, 11-6 and 11-3 while Rushna Mehboob won against Amna Latif 3-1 with scores 11-5, 12-10, 6-11 and 11-4 in just over half-an-hour.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2013.