For the second year running, Tayyab Aslam failed to move past the quarter-final stage of the World Junior Individual Squash Championship after losing to Egypt’s Saadeldin Abouaish 3-1. PHOTO COURTESY: WSF
It turned out to be the match of the tournament as both players stretched each other to the limits.
Tayyab started out well after winning the first game with ease and was all set to secure the second after leading 6-1 at one point before Abouaish made a remarkable recovery to win eight points in a row and level the match 1-1.
The Lahore-based player was unable to recover from the shock after going down from a seemingly winning position, which his opponent took advantage of by going 2-1 up.
However, the fourth game drew both players 4-4 until Abouaish made unforced errors and let Tayyab go up 9-4. It appeared that the match would go into a decider until the Egyptian once again made a stunning comeback to draw the game 9-9.
Eventually, it was Abouaish who triumphed after a 74-minute battle with a scoreline of 6-11, 11-8, 11-5, 15-13.
“Mentally that was one of the toughest matches I’ve ever played — it’s definitely one of the best wins of my career, and I’ve never reacted like that at the end of the match, ever.” Abouaish told the World Squash Federation website.
Asim Khan too lost in a similar manner against Malaysia’s Eain Yow Ng despite putting up a valiant effort towards the end.
In the start, Eain dominated to take a 2-0 lead though Asim managed to pull one back to take the match to 2-1 in his opponent’s favour.
The Pakistani tried to take the match into a decider but failed to finish off the fourth game succesfully as Eain progressed to the semi-finals after winning the 56-minute encounter with scores of 11-4, 11-6, 10-12, 11-9.
And it was all hopes lost for Pakistan after top seed Diego Elias cut short Israr Ahmed’s run by winning in straight games with scores of 11-6, 11-8, 11-4.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 30th, 2015.
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