Ahsan in SAARC Snooker semis

KARACHI: Pakistan’s premier cueist Ahsan Ramzan stormed into the semifinals of the 2nd Sheikh Kamal SAARC Snooker Championship 2022 by stunning Afghanistan’s main hope, Saleh Muhammad, in the quarter-finals on Tuesday.

According to the information shared by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), Pakistan’s other participant, Babar Masih, crashed in the quarters at the Dhaka Club in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka.

Interestingly, Ishpreet Singh Chadha of India, who routed the vastly experienced Babar Masih 5-1 in the quarter-finals, will be up against the young and promising Ahsan in the semifinals on Wednesday (today).

Ahsan showed maturity beyond his age while hammering his more illustrious rival Saleh, who used to be Pakistan top ranked cueist a couple of decades ago before moving to Afghanistan. The talented youngster tamed the master craftsman 5-1 in the best-of-nine frame encounter with the scores of 75-1, 43-70, 47-42, 70-3, 76-21, 72-25.

Saleh, a former world number two and ex-Asian champion, was completely blown away by the brilliance of Pakistan’s latest prodigy who gave away nothing to reduce it into one-way traffic. It was the other way round for Pakistan’s more experienced cueist, Babar, as he was outplayed by Ishpreet who won their match 5-1 with the frame scores of 48-73, 57-20, 79-36, 69-31, 74-38, 57-12.

The Pakistani cueist drew the first blood with a break of 58 in the opening frame but it turned out to be his only moment of glory as his opponent pocketed the next five frames on a trot, chalking up breaks of 69 and 51 in the third and fifth frames, respectively.