Pakistan’s Nasir Iqbal, Noor Zaman and Muhammad Ashab Irfan took centre stage on the opening day of the Karachi Open, scoring a trio of home wins to advance to the second round of the Gold-level event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wildcard Iqbal and Pakistan No.1 Zaman claimed respective five-game wins over Moustafa Elsirty and Melvil Scianimanico to delight the home crowds within DA Creek Club, while Ashab Irfan raced past Ryunosuke Tsukue in three games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
World No.134 Iqbal has enjoyed a wealth of success on home soil throughout his career, with 11 of his 18 PSA Tour titles coming in Pakistan – and the 31-year-old continued this strong record after battling back from two games down to defeat World No.45 Elsirty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After setting up a tie with No.5 seed Mohamad Zakaria, Iqbal said: “It was a really great match today. It was so supportive playing in front of a home crowd. Events like this will be so good for the younger generation of players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“In the first two games, I was a bit slow in the midcourt, and after going 2-0 down, I got told to push Moustafa to the back two corners because he’s so tall. When I pushed him back, it gave me some room and allowed me to play in short.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, 21-year-old Zaman got the better of fellow up-and-coming star Scianimanico in a topsy-turvy five-game duel. Despite dropping two games in a mid-match slump, the World No.38 recovered to seal an 11-9, 10-12, 3-11, 11-6, 11-6 win. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the women’s draw, England’s Torrie Malik claimed the standout win after battling back from two games down to advance past Egypt’s Menna Hamed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite spurning game balls in both the opening games, World No.42 Malik rallied in impressive style, fighting back to defeat the World No.52 by a 13-15, 10-12, 11-9, 11-6, 11-5 scoreline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Results<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Men’s Round One: <\/strong>Muhammad Ashab Irfan (PAK) bt Ryunosuke Tsukue (JPN) 3-0: 11-4, 11-6, 11-9 (25m); Iker Pajares (ESP) bt [WC] Tayyab Aslam (PAK) 3-0: 11-6, 11-2, 11-7 (27m); [WC] Nasir Iqbal (PAK) bt Moustafa Elsirty (EGY) 3-2: 5-11, 8-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-6\u00a0(56m); Alex Lau (HKG) bt Sanjay Jeeva (MAS) 3-0: 11-9, 11-5, 11-9 (38m); Karim El Hammamy\u00a0(EGY) bt Ivan Perez (ESP) 3-0: 11-6, 11-3, 11-6 (56m); Noor Zaman (PAK) bt Melvil Scianimanico (FRA) 3-2: 11-9, 10-12, 3-11, 11-6, 11-6\u00a0(49m); Yahya Elnawasany (EGY) bt Shahjahan Khan\u00a0(USA) 3-0: 11-9, 12-10, 11-8 (47m); Toufik Mekhalfi (FRA) bt Henry Leung (HKG) 3-1: 12-10, 11-3, 3-11, 11-4 (48m)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women’s Round One: <\/strong>Haya Ali (EGY) bt Nour Heikal (EGY) 3-0: 11-9, 11-9, 11-5 (23m); Nour Aboulmakarim (EGY) bt Ainaa Amani (MAS) 3-2: 7-11, 11-8, 11-2, 3-11, 11-6 (38m); Amina El Rihany (EGY) bt Marie Stephan (FRA) 3-0: 12-10, 11-7, 11-5 (25m); Mariam Metwally (EGY) bt [WC] Sana Bahadar (PAK) 3-0: 11-4, 11-1, 11-6 (15m); Sin Yuk Chan (HKG) bt [WC] Mariam Malik (PAK) 3-0: 11-2, 11-4, 11-0 (14m); Nardine Garas (EGY) bt Tsz-Wing Tong (HKG) 3-0: 11-5, 11-7, 11-8 (27m); Torrie Malik (ENG) bt Menna Hamed (EGY) 3-2: 13-15, 10-12, 11-9, 11-6, 11-5; Nadine Shahin (EGY) bt Habiba Hani (EGY) 3-0: 12-10, 11-7, 11-4 (25m)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pakistan’s Nasir Iqbal, Noor Zaman and Muhammad Ashab Irfan took centre stage on the opening day of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-7635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-squash"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t