Dubai: Adil Maqbool has had a very rough summer, one that has seen his performances on court overshadowed by matters off it. UAE No.1 since 2001, the Abu Dhabi-born Pakistani has struggled to maintain focus amid the legal wrangling that has followed the decision to bar him from domestic tournaments for an off-court skirmish earlier in the year. But while it may have affected his appearances on the local circuit, his international graph has continued to soar.

He started the summer with a ranking of 126 and is now ranked 101 in the latest world rankings issued by the PSA on December 1. And the squash star is pleased that he will have the chance to fulfill his aim of cracking the top-100 again by the end of this year.

‘Over the summer with the help of my father and coach, Maqbool Khawaja, I worked very hard on my fitness and the results are satisfactory,” he told XPRESS prior to leaving for Pakistan to play his last tournament of the year.

“I lack any real competition here in the UAE and after being on tour for a while now, I am coping with the pace of the top players on the circuit a bit better. I have had a few really close games with players in the top-60 in the world and I am confident with a few more weeks of training I will be able to push them even further and hopefully get back to my career high ranking of 66 (in 2009) in the next year.”

The highlights of the last few months have been three quarterfinal finishes in PSA Challenger 10 events which included the Karachi International Championship’13, Martyr Fahad Al Ahmad Championship (Kuwait) and the Pakistan International Circuit No. II. In two of the events Maqbool lost in the quarter-finals to the eventual finalists.

He also qualified and finished in the top-32 of the $50,000 PSA International 50 event in Egypt and the Sky Open 2013. In the last-32, he lost to World No. 47 Shaun Le Roux of South Africa.

Furthermore, he reached the pre-quarter-finals of the Kent Open, ISC 7 Telematics Open (UK), CAS International (Pakistan) and the Royal Lake Club Open (Malaysia).

“The turning point of my recent performances started with me beating the Kuwaiti No. 3 Ali Bader Al-Ramzi 3-1 in May to reach my first quarter-final in Kuwait. He had beaten me with the same score just two months before in March. The string of quarter-final finishes and qualifying for the ‘Major’ in Cairo has brought me closer to breaking back into the top-100. My aim was to get back into the top-100 by the end of the year and it seems like a very achievable goal now,” he said.

Quick fact

Maqbool has been ranked inside the top 100 for over 50 months before he took a break from competing three years back to complete his Bachelors degree in Computer Science from the UK.