Ismail & Ashab Irfan Win Challenger Tour Player of the Month Awards

Hana Ismail and Muhammad Ashab Irfan have won the PSA Challenger Tour Player of the Month awards for July, as voted for by fans on social media. 

For 20-year-old Ashab Irfan, winning the award caps an impressive second half to the season, in which he’s won his first two PSA Tour titles – both at the 9k level – and climbed to a career-high ranking of No.82 in the world. 

The most recent of those two titles and the career-high ranking both came in July, as he won the Kanso Men Open Presented By Houston Squash Club, in dramatic style too. 

After seeing off fellow Pakistani player Muhammad Huzaifa Ibrahim 3-0 in round two, Ashab Irfan then had to fight back from 2-0 down to beat Jorge Luis Gomez Dominguez in the quarter-finals, before easing past Liam Marrison in the semi-finals. 

He then had to come through an epic battle with Veer Chotrani in the final, winning game five 11-8 to get his hands on the trophy after 80 minutes of drama-filled action. 

The Lahore-born player – who trains with Jahanzeb Khan at the Houston Squash Club – then reached his first 12k final a fortnight later, ultimately falling at the final hurdle to compatriot Muhammad Asim Khan. 

Egypt’s Ismail, meanwhile, won the women’s award for the second time this season, having also collected the honour in February. 

The 19-year-old won three events in three weeks earlier this year, and added a fourth trophy to her collection at the Berkhamsted Linksap Open in early July. 

Seeded No.2, Ismail needed all five games to get past University of Birmingham teammate Olivia Besant in the last eight, before beating Sofia Aveiro Pita to reach the final. 

There, she was up against top seed Saran Nghiem, a player ranked more than 50 places higher than her in the rankings and who she had not beaten in two previous encounters. 

This final was a different story, though, as Ismail produced an outstanding display to edge three tight games, winning 13-11, 11-8, 11-9 in 40 minutes.