Five Pak players to make debut at World Junior Squash

KARACHI: Five Pakistani junior players will compete in WSF World Junior Squash Championships for the first time.

The championships are scheduled in Chennai, India, from July 18-29.

The five who are playing for the first time are Mohammad Uzair, Harris Qasim, Uzair Shaukat, Asadullah Khan and Farhan Hashmi. Abbas Zaib, the sixth player in the team, has experience of playing before.

The players, accompanied by three officials (coaches Yasin Khan and Fazal Shah and manager Munawar Zaman), will go to India on July 13.

After individual championship, 28 countries will compete in Men’s Team Event.

Pakistan are the defending champion of the team event, having won the title in 2016 in Poland. It is worth adding here that India first refused visas to Pakistani contingent but later issued visas on the intervention of World Squash Federation (WSF).

The draws of the individual championships were released on Friday by WSF.

Mohammad Uzair will be playing against Leo Fatialofa of New Zealand in the first round. Ranked 124th in World Junior Circuit, he played British Junior Open this year where he lost in the round three and Scottish Junior Open last year where he lost in the quarter-finals of under-19 category.

Uzair Shaukat is drawn against Hafiz Zhafri of Malaysia in the first round.

He played British Junior Open this year and lost in the second round in under-17 category.

Abbas Zeb, ranked 90th, will face Murray Schepers of South Africa in the first round. He played WSF World Junior Individual Championship last year where he lost in the round three. He also played 18th Asian Junior Squash Team Championships last year.

Asadullah will face Utkarsh Baheti of India. He played British Junior Open this year where he lost in the round four in under-15 category, finishing 10th.

Farhan is up against Ahmad Al-Muraikhi of Qatar. Farhan played British Junior Open this year where he lost in the round three in under-17 category. Last year, he played Scottish Junior Open where he lost in the second round and finished 9th in the under-17 category.

Haris is drawn against Ethan Eyles of Australia. He played British Junior Open this year where he lost in the second round in under-17 category.

Last year, he played Scottish Junior Open where he lost in the semi-finals of under-17 category, finishing third.