{"id":35589,"date":"2026-08-04T10:25:59","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T10:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=35589"},"modified":"2026-08-04T10:25:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T10:25:59","slug":"pakistan-asim-khan-upsets-top-seed-noor-zaman-to-reach-squash-semi-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=35589","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan: Asim Khan upsets top seed Noor Zaman to reach squash semi-finals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/a>PAKISTAN\u2019S Asim Khan eyes a return against compatriot Noor Zaman during their Pakistan Navy Fleet Club Open International Squash Championship quarter-final at the Pakistan Navy Roshan Khan-Jahangir Khan Squash Complex on Sunday.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pakistan\u2019s Asim Khan secured a place in the semi-finals of the Pakistan Navy Fleet Club Open International Squash Championship by upsetting top seed and compatriot Noor Zaman, while veteran Nasir Iqbal also advanced after defeating Hamza Khan here at the Pakistan Navy Roshan Khan-Jahangir Khan Squash Complex on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asim, ranked 78th in the world, after losing the first game, went on to win the next three before Noor retired from the match due to injury towards the end of the fourth game. The game scores were 9-11, 11-9, 11-1, 11-3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am feeling great, it was a tough match,\u201d Asim said. \u201cMy performances weren\u2019t up to the mark for the past couple of years, so it feels good to win against my team-mate and top-seed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Explaining his strategy after dropping the opening game, Asim said that he was focused more on reading his opponent\u2019s strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNoor is a very skillful player and it\u2019s very difficult to read his game,\u201d he said. \u201cSo my focus in the first game was to read him and then execute my plan of keeping him in the corners. Thankfully, the strategy worked.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that maintaining focus was key against a player of Noor\u2019s caliber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asim will face Salman Khalil in the first semi-final on Monday. Salman defeated compatriot Mohamed Naseer 3-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the other quarter-final, the 32-year-old Nasir defeated Hamza 5-11, 10-12, 11-8, 11-9, 8-11 in a thrilling contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is a major event for me, so I am glad I can perform well up till now,\u201d the veteran said. \u201cI won the first two games, but Hamza is an extremely talented player, as he made a remarkable comeback. It\u2019s difficult to halt the momentum when someone makes a comeback, but thankfully, I was able to execute my plan in the decider, and it worked.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nasir, however, made it clear that he is not satisfied yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am a step closer to the goal and will try my best to win the tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nasir will be up against Egypt\u2019s Yassin Elshafei \u2014 who downed Ali Tolba 3-2 in the other last-eight clash \u2014 and said he is ready for the experienced opponent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe is an experienced player; we can\u2019t take the match up easily, but I am ready.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final of the event, which carries a prize purse of $41,000, will be played on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reference Link:- https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/2020246<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PAKISTAN\u2019S Asim Khan eyes a return against compatriot Noor Zaman during their Pakistan Navy Fleet Club Open International Squash Championship quarter-final at the Pakistan Navy Roshan Khan-Jahangir Khan Squash Complex on Sunday. Pakistan\u2019s Asim Khan secured a place in the semi-finals of the Pakistan Navy Fleet Club Open International Squash Championship by upsetting top seed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[32932,24139,32934,483,24707,32933],"class_list":["post-35589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sample-category","tag-asim-khan-2","tag-championship-2","tag-navy-fleet-club","tag-pakistan-2","tag-squash-2","tag-squash-semi-final","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35590,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35589\/revisions\/35590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}