KARACHI: Pakistani players went off to a victorious start in their respective age categories on the opening day of the 30th Asian Junior Individual Squash Championship in China on Wednesday.
Pakistani players were in action for U19, U17, U15 and U13 age group categories.
Anas Ali Shah, Pakistan’s sole representative in the U19 age group competition, defeated Malaysia’s Tho Wai Yan 3-1 in the hard-fought game that lasted for 41 minutes.
After losing the first game 4-11, Anas fought back to win the next three with scores of 11/8, 11/6 and 11/3 to qualify for 2nd round where he’ll face India’s Shaurya Bawa.
In the U17 competition, both Abdullah Nawaz and Abdullah Nadeem downed their competitors without much hesitation.
Abdullah Nawaz took 28 minutes to knock out India’s Gurveer Singh 11/3, 11/7 and 11/4 in the first round while Abdullah Nadeem defeated Leong Keng in Macau 11/0, 11/8 and 11/7 in just 18 minutes.
Ibrahim Zeb, participating in the U15 category, outclassed Han Lechuan of China 11/2, 11/6 and 11/5 in just 15 minutes to confirm his berth to the round of 16.
In the U13 category, Ahmed Rayyan Khalil and Nauman Khan completed their victories against Jaden Loo Wu Ze of Malaysia and Cheng August Haun-Chen easily. Both the U13 players won their games inside 15 minutes.
The 2nd round of the championship will be played on Thursday (August 17).
Faizan Lakhani Faizan Lakhani is Deputy Editor (Sports) at Geo News.