On Sunday, youthful Hamza Khan made a comeback to defeat Egypt’s Mohamed Zakaria to win the World Junior Championship in Melbourne, bringing Pakistan back to the top of the world squash rankings.
Khan defeated Zakaria 3-1 in the final, with scores of 10-12, 14-12, 11-3, and 11-6.
This was Pakistan’s first World Junior Squash victory in nearly four decades since the last Pakistani player to win the title was Jansher Khan in 1986.
The final between Hamza and Zakaria got off to an exciting start with two back-to-back games that ended in tiebreakers. However, Hamza easily won the next two games to complete a 3-1 victory.
Meanwhile, Zakaria took the lead with a 12-10 score in the second game, which lasted 26 minutes.
It was another dramatic match, as the Pakistani trailed 8-10 before denying Zakaria the crucial game point twice and winning 14-12.
The next two games were completely the opposite of what everyone had seen in the previous two games. Hamza easily won the third game with a score of 11-3 in just 6 minutes, before winning the fourth with a score of 11-6.
On Saturday, Hamza qualified for the World Junior Squash Championship final. Melvil Scianimanico of France rallied from two games and match ball down, but Hamza won the decision to go to the final.
