Pakistan’s emerging squash talent, Muhammad Asim Khan, defeated Malaysia’s Joachim Chuah in a thrilling contest to claim the World Championship Qualifying Event–Asia title in Hong Kong on Saturday.
The title victory propelled Asim into the PSA World Championships 2026, scheduled to be held from May 8 to 16 in Giza and will feature the world’s top squash players competing for a lucrative prize purse of $700,000.
In an enthralling five-game final of the qualifying event, which lasted 82 minutes, Asim fought valiantly throughout to ultimately earn a narrow 3-2 victory, the expanded scores for which were 11-3, 13-11, 9-11, 3-11, 12-10.
Asim got off to a flying start to the summit clash, winning the first two games 11-3, 13-11, but Chuah staged a remarkable comeback, prevailing in the subsequent two games, to force the decider.
In the decider, Asim held his nerves calm and narrowly clinched it 12-10 to round up a highly-rewarding victory, which helped him join compatriots Noor Zaman and Muhammad Ashab Irfan in qualifying for the mega event.
The 29-year-old kicked off his World Championship Qualifying Event – Asia campaign with a thumping 3-0 victory over Japan’s Naoki Hayashi, which earned him a berth in the quarter-finals.
He faced tough competition in the quarter-finals against Hong Kong’s Chi Him Wong, but managed to register a 3-2 victory to qualify for the semi-final, where he received equal resistance from Ming Hong Tang but once again emerged victorious with the same scoreline and qualified for the final.
