Danish Deals Out Brotherly Breakthrough

It was a case of fifth time lucky for Pakistan's Danish Atlas Khan in today's semi-finals of the CAS International Squash Championship when the teenager finally recorded his first ever PSA World Tour win over his older brother Aamir Atlas Khan to earn a surprise place in the final of the long-established PSA Challenger 15 event at the PAF Hashim Khan Squash Complex in their home city of Peshawar.

It was more than three years ago in Islamabad that the now 19-year-old Danish first faced Aamir, then ranked just outside the world top 20, in the PSF-CAA International Pakistan Circuit No2 - an event which Atlas Khan senior went on to win.

Further Tour meetings in Pakistan and Iran failed to change the status quo until this meeting on hometown soil - where third seed Danish recovered from the loss of the second game to beat his 23-year-old second-seeded sibling 11-1, 7-11, 11-8, 11-9.

It was defending champion Aamir Atlas Khan's first defeat in the event since 2006 - since when he has built up a 14-match winning streak, which included three titles.

There was also a shock in the other semi-final when fourth seed Farhan Zaman beat event favourite Nasir Iqbal, the Pakistan number one from Bannu, 11-5, 10-12, 11-5, 7-11, 11-6, to reach the fifth Tour final of his career.

Danish Atlas Khan goes into his seventh career PSA Tour final boasting a 2/0 career head-to-head record over Zaman, who also hails from Peshawar.