Pakistan Wins With Dignity
June 28, 2004, By SquashTalk Staff; SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004

Pakistan Halt Malaysian Domination Of Asian Championships

It may have been unexpected to the Malaysian hosts and some other squash observers, but the Pakistani men's squad fulfilled the high expectations of the Pakistani squash community and Pakistani fans as they demonstrated small step one on their determined path back towards the heights of the world squash elite.

Pakistan has put much focus on these Asian games and on their program in general in recent months and the upset result that they achieved here will bring signficant satisfaction to the Pakstani fans and partisans.

Mansoor Zaman avenged his defeat in last week's individual final to beat the Asian champion Ong Beng Hee in the men's final of the AirAsia Asian Team Squash Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and steer Pakistan to a 2/1 upset over the top seeded hosts. Malaysia retained the women's team title with a 2/0 victory over Hong Kong - but Pakistan's determined victory in the men's final put paid to Malaysia's clean sweep of all four Asian titles.

Malaysia took a surprise lead in the men's final when squad No3 Kenneth Low, now retired from the PSA Tour, beat Pakistan's world No41 Farrukh Zaman 9-7 2-9 10-8 9-4 in the opening rubber. The Pakistan squad, comprising the three Zaman cousins Farrukh, Mansoor and Shahid, then called on the highest-ranked member of the family to pull back the deficit.

World No19 Mansoor duly obliged, and inflicted the first defeat over Beng Hee in the tournament in a sensational 9-3 10-8 8-10 9-7 victory over the three-times Asian champion. In a nail-biting conclusion to the tie, Shahid Zaman stemmed a fight-back by Moh'd Azlan Iskandar to beat Malaysia's second string 9-5 10-8 2-9 2-9 9-7 and keep the men's team title in Pakistani hands.

The women's final progressed according to the seedings as favourites Malaysia defeated No2 seed Hong Kong after only two rubbers. Third string Tricia Chuah put the hosts ahead with a straightforward 9-6 9-5 9-1 win over Annie Au.

Long-time Asian rivals Nicol David and Rebecca Chiu then fought out the tie-winning match - with Chiu, the Asian Games champion from Hong Kong, taking the first game, but four-times Nicol David bouncing back to take the next three to win 1-9 9-3 9-4 9-1 to give Malaysia the title for the fifth time.

RESULTS: AirAsia Asian Team Squash Championships, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Men's semi-finals:
[1]MALAYSIA 2 [3]INDIA 1 (Ong Beng Hee bt Ritwik Bhattacharya 9-0 9-3 10-9; Moh'd Azlan Iskandar bt Saurav Ghosal 9-2 9-2 9-5; Kenneth Low lost to Siddarth Suchde 2-9 6-9 4-9)
[2]PAKISTAN 2 [5]KUWAIT 0 (Mansoor Zaman bt Bader El Hussaini 9-0 9-4 9-7; Majid Khan bt Nasser El Ramzi 9-3 9-1 9-2)
5th-8th place play-offs:
[4]HONG KONG 2 [6]JAPAN 0 (Faheem Khan bt Kimihiko Sano 9-2 9-0 9-2; Roger Ngan bt Yasunori Ishiwata 9-6 9-3 9-2)
[7]KOREA 2 JORDAN 0 (Chung Young Jun bt Bader Abd-El Raouf 10-9 9-1 9-4; Kim Sung Young bt Alaa Harb 9-2 10-8 9-0)
Final:
[2]PAKISTAN 2 [1]MALAYSIA 1 (Mansoor Zaman bt Ong Beng Hee 9-3 10-8 8-10 9-7; Shahid Zaman bt Moh'd Azlan Iskandar 9-5 10-8 2-9 2-9 9-7; Farrukh Zaman lost to Kenneth Low 7-9 9-2 8-10 4-9)
3rd place play-off:
[3]INDIA 2 [5]KUWAIT 0 (Ritwik Bhattacharya bt Bader El Hussaini 9-1 9-2 9-5; Siddarth Suchde bt Ali Al Ramzi 9-7 9-0 9-0)
5th place play-off:
[4]HONG KONG 2 [7]KOREA 0 (Wong Wai Hang bt Chung Young Jun 4-9 7-9 9-2 9-5 9-2; Vincent Cheung bt Kim Sung Young 9-0 9-5 9-2)
7th place play-off:
[6]JAPAN 2 JORDAN 0 (Kimihiko Sano bt Bader Abd-El Raouf 9-0 9-4 9-4; Ron Tanno bt Alaa Harb 7-9 9-5 9-2 9-1)

Women's semi-finals:
[1]MALAYSIA 2 [3]INDIA 0 (Nicol David bt Joshna Chinappa 9-1 9-0 9-3; Tricia Chuah bt Alisha Mashruwala 9-0 9-0 9-1)
[2]HONG KONG 2 [4]JAPAN 0 (Rebecca Chiu bt Mami Nishio 9-6 9-1 9-0; Annie Au bt Kozue Onizawa 9-4 9-1 9-3)
Final:
[1]MALAYSIA 2 [2]HONG KONG 0 (Nicol David bt Rebecca Chiu 1-9 9-3 9-4 9-1; Tricia Chuah bt Annie Au 9-6 9-5 9-1)
3rd place play-off:
[4]JAPAN 2 [3]INDIA 1 (Mami Nishio lost to Joshna Chinappa 2-9 6-9 9-7 4-9; Chinatsu Matsui bt Mekhela Subedar 10-8 9-0 9-2; Kozue Onizawa bt Supriya Balsekar 9-3 9-3 9-3)

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