Tayyab Aslam, Faiza Zafar seals Circuit-III men’s, women’s titles
SNGPL’s Tayyab Aslam outplayed second seed Farhan Zaman by 3-1while Faiza Zafar defeated sibling Madina Zafar to lift the men’s $10,000 and women’s $5,000 titles in the Jubilee Insurance Pakistan Squash Championship Circuit-III at the PN Roshan Khan-Jahangir Khan Squash Complex, Karachi.
SNGPL’s Tayyab Aslam outplayed second seed Farhan Zaman by 3-1while Faiza Zafar defeated sibling Madina Zafar to lift the men’s $10,000 and women’s $5,000 titles in the Jubilee Insurance Pakistan Squash Championship Circuit-III at the PN Roshan Khan-Jahangir Khan Squash Complex, Karachi.
In the men’s final, the fourth seed Tayyab proved too hot for Farhan Zaman and outpaced him by 3-1. Tayyab started brightly and took the first game by 11-8 while in the second game, he had to struggle hard to take the game by 12-10. Zaman lost the momentum and was nowhere in the third game, as Tayyab took it 11-1 and shut the doors by taking the fourth game 11-8 to land the title in 44 minutes.
Soon after the victory, Tayyab said: “After losing the final in Lahore, I was committed to win Karachi event, so I prepared really hard and performed well here, which resulted in title victory. I am also working hard to do well in the upcoming Asian Games and hopefully, we’ll succeed in winning laurels for the country in the mega event.”
Aslam said his best world ranking was 59th and that slipped to 145th due to ankle injury adding that presently he has come among the top 100 (95th).
In the $5,000 women event, Faiza Zafar took sweet revenge of her lost against younger sister Madina Zafar in the last $5,000 event played in Lahore early this month, as she won 3-1 in all-sister affair in the ladies singles final.
Although Faiza won the final 3-1, yet all the games were highly close ones. Madina could have seal the fate, but she committed too many mistakes, which cost her the title in the end. Faiza took the first game 11-7, won the second 11-9 but lost the third game 11-13 and after surviving some anxious moments and thanks mainly to Madina’s unwanted errors, Faiza prevailed and took the fourth and decisive game 16-14 to win the title.
Minister of Sports and Culture Sindh Dr Junaid Ali Shah graced the occasion as chief guest while living legend Jahangir Khan, Sindh Secretary Sports Dr Niaz Abbasi and Jubilee Insurance CEO Tahir Ahmed and others were also present there and witnessed the finals.
Tayyab Aslam, meanwhile, received a winning purse of US $ 1805 while Farhan Zaman earned runner-up prize of US $ 1235 from caretaker Sindh Sports Minister Dr. Syed Junaid Ali Shah, who graced the final. Faiza fetched US $ 902.50 while Madina got richer by US $ 617.50.
