Friday January 11, 2013
SRAM out to arrest Kamran’s drastic drop in form
By AFTAR SINGH
KUALA LUMPUR: Squash Racquets Association of Malaysia (SRAM) are concerned about national No. 5 Kamran Khan’s sudden drop in form – and plummeting world ranking.
Kamran, who will turn 23 on Feb 22, was ranked 58th last June but has since slid to an all-time low of 97th this month.
SRAM had set a target for him to break into the top 50 last year, instead he has dropped by 39 rungs in five months.
Kamran endured a miserable outing in the Malaysian Open in September, losing in the first round of the qualifying tournament to Siddarth Suchde of India.
A month later, the fourth-seeded Kamran was ousted by unseeded Nasir Iqbal of Pakistan in the semi-finals of the Royal Lake Club tournament here.
He also lost in the first round of the qualifying tournament to England’s Charles Sharpes in the World Open in Doha, Qatar, last month.
SRAM general manager Christopher Brodie said that they are worried about Kamran’s poor form in Professional Squash Association (PSA) tournaments in the last five months.
“We had high hopes of him being one of the top three national players ... but he failed to maintain his form and ranking,” said Brodie.
“He has been training hard as usual ... we’re not sure why he failed to win any of his matches.
“We’ll have a heart-to-heart talk with Kamran to find out what are the areas he needs to work on to get his game and confidence back.
“We’ll do all we can to help him break into the top 50 in the world by this year.”
Kamran, who did not make much progress under national elite coach Peter Genever early last year, decided to train under Mubashir Gul.
But there has not been much improvement either.
Brodie, however, is satisfied with the performances of the other four men’s players – Ong Beng Hee (world No. 20), Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan (33rd), Mohd Asyraf Azan (62nd) and Ivan Yuen (66th).
“We want Beng Hee and Nafiizwan to stay in the top 20 and 30 respectively this year. As for Asyraf and Ivan, we have set them a target of breaking into the top 50 by the end of this year,” he said.
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