Sajjad and Asif reach final of 3rd National Ranking Snooker Championship

KARACHI: Two former champions from Pakistan, Mohammad Sajjad and Mohammad Asif, have qualified for the final of 3rd National Ranking Snooker Championship in Karachi.

The experienced duo outclassed Mohammad Bilal and Sohail Shahzad, respectively, in the semi finals played on Wednesday here at Karachi Gymkhana.

In the first semi final, Mohammad Bilal, who was seeded 4th in the tournament, was once leading 4-2 against seeded 12th Mohammad Sajjad but the experienced cueist fought back and won three consecutive frames to complete a 5-4 win, confirming the berth to his first final since 2017.

Sajjad also played a break of 117 in the final frame to win wrap up the semi final with score of 22-67, 72-01, 08-59, 69-29(56), 62-64(63), 23-73(73), 88-06, 62-50, 126-07(117) in two hours and 50 minutes.

The second semi final between top seed Mohammad Asif and 9th seed Sohail Shehzad proved to be a one-sided affair which ended with comfortable 5-1 win for Mohammad Asif.

The former World Champion didn’t allow Sohail to stay on table for longer as he completed the game in less than two hours.

Asif’s score against Sohail was 81-43, 45-68, 52-06, 76-06(56), 61-17, 93-31(58).

The final will be played on Thursday with Pakistan’s first sports channel Geo Super set to broadcast the action live from Karachi Gymkhana.