Iqbal loses in final of Atlanta Open

Pakistan’s top- ranked squash player goes down 3-1 to Salazar.

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Nasir Iqbal failed in his bid to win back-to-back Professional Squash Association (PSA) Tour titles for the first time in his career as he was defeated by Mexico’s Cesar Salazar 3-1 in the final of Atlanta Open in Georgia on Monday.

Iqbal, who is bidding to break into the world’s top 40, got off to a perfect start by winning the first game. Unfortunately, he was unable to continue his form in the match as his opponent upped the game.

From there on, Salazar was hard to stop and easily wrapped up the victory with game scores of 2-11, 11-3, 11-5 and 11-8. Despite the loss in the final, Iqbal is expected to improve his ranking once the PSA World Rankings of February are released.

Iqbal and Pakistan number two Farhan Zaman are on a tour of the US where they will appear in different PSA tournaments before returning to Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2014.

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