Iqbal Takes Royal Lake Club Crown
by Howard Harding
7 October 2012 - A stunning sequence of victories led to unseeded Pakistani teenager Nasir Iqbal winning the Royal Lake Club Open, the inaugural PSA World Tour Challenger 10 squash event at The Royal Lake Club in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
The 18-year-old from Peshawar made his breakthrough in the quarter-finals where he upset local hope Muhd Asyraf Azan, the No2 seed from KL.
Iqbal faced another Malaysian in the semis. But a 'contributed injury' in the match sustained by Kamran Khan gave the third seed the chance to recover overnight. When replayed the following morning, however, it was Iqbal who prevailed, claiming his third successive straight games win in the event.
The other semi-final was an all-Indian affair, in which fourth seed Harinder Pal Sandhu ended Ravi Dixit's run, beating the qualifier 12-10, 11-7, 11-3 in 40 minutes.
But Iqbal maintained his seed-slaughtering run in the final, beating Sandhu 11-6, 11-5, 11-5 to claim the second PSA Tour title of his career - but his first on foreign soil.
RESULTS: PSA Challenger 10 Royal Lake Club Open, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Semi-finals:
[4] Harinder Pal Sandhu (IND) bt [Q] Ravi Dixit (IND) 12-10, 11-7, 11-3 (40m)
Nasir Iqbal (PAK) bt [3] Kamran Khan (MAS) 11-8, 11-8, 11-2
Final:
Nasir Iqbal (PAK) bt [4] Harinder Pal Sandhu (IND) 11-6, 11-5, 11-5
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