Pakistan’s Hamza Khan qualified for the semi-finals of the World Junior Squash Championship in Melbourne on Friday.
Hamza Khan defeated Malaysia’s Joachim Chuah 11-8, 9-11, 11-7, 12-10 to book his spot in the final four.
Earlier, Hamza reached the quarter-finals on Thursday after defeating Colombia’s Santamaria 3-2 in a close contest in the pre-quarter-final.
Meanwhile, in the round of 16, Hamza beat Netherlands’ Samuel Grates by 12-10, 11-6, 11-3 and 11-7 on Wednesday.
On the other hand, Pakistan’s Huzaifa Khan lost to USA’s Rishi Srivastava and was eliminated from the final race.
A nail-biting contest between Huzaifa and Rishi lasted for five sets. Even though the American won the first two sets 11-9 and 11-8 and all looked over for the Pakistani but Huzaifa fought back and won two successive sets 11-8 and 11-8 by playing valiantly.
However, in the final set, Rishi overcame Huzaifa by 11-9 and qualified for the pre-quarter-final.
Three Pakistani players, Hamza Khan, Moeen-ud-din and Huzaifa Ibrahim Khan, were sent to participate in the championship.
It must be noted that Hamza was the semi-finalist in the last year’s edition of World Juniors where he lost to England's Finnlay Withington while Huzaifa is the former Asian number one in the junior category.