KARACHI: The seeded duo of Mohammad Sajjad and Asjad Iqbal booked a date in the final, defeating their unseeded rivals in the semi-finals of the 42nd National Snooker Championship 2017 here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Monday. Sajjad cleaned up Khurram Hussain Agha 6-1 in three hours with the frame scores of 97-7, 52-69, 63- 44, 117-8, 82-17, 69-35, 67-2. Asjad needed less time to blast Nadir Miran 6-1 with the frame scores being 61-10, 102-0, 86-44, 75-48, 23-79, 68-50, 53-40. Both the finalists hail from Sargodha. The 15-frame final, to be televised live on Geo Super, is due to commence at 10 am on Tuesday (today). The final will provide the 25-year-old Asjad, who has never won the National Championship, an opportunity to seek revenge from Sajjad, who had shattered his dreams seven years ago. The 32-year-old Sajjad, who has annexed the national crown two times, will try to do it for the third time to make amends for his inconsistent performances in the recent past. Both the seeded cueists whipped their rivals with remarkable ease in the semi-finals. The vastly experienced Khurram Agha, now 40, failed to repeat his heroics of the past as the local cueist was unable to come to terms with themercurial Sajjad, who controlled the game from the outset. Khurram, having been blanked in the opening frame, showed flashes of brilliance to take the fiercely fought second frame but that remained his only glory on an otherwise forgettable day for him. Sajjad doubled his leadwith a classy break of 111 in the fourth frame and he proved unstoppable in the next three frames to complete a cakewalk victory. Earlier in the day, Asjad had meted out similar treatment to Nadir, a 29-year-old qualifier from Jarranwala, a town in Punjab’s District Faisalabad, who had stormed into the semi-finals after creating a few upsets. Therewas notmuch the unseeded cueist could do, however, to combat the master class of his fancied opponent. A s j a d started the game in amost imp r e s s i v
e manner. After taking home the opening frame leisurely, he fired a break of 102 in the very next frame. He ran into 4-0 lead rather quickly. Nadir opened his account by pocketing the fifth frame but was undone by Asjad’s break of 68 in the sixth frame and it was all over in the seventh frame. The final will be followed by the prize distribution ceremony in the afternoon in which Sindh Governor Mohammad Zubair will be the chief guest.