All four Pakistan cueists crash out of Asian Snooker

KARACHI: All four Pakistani cueists crashed in the knockout phase of the 32nd Asian Snooker Championship 2016 in Doha, Qatar.

According to the information made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) here on Thursday, Kritsanut Lertsattayathorn of Thailand edged out second seed Mohammad Asif 5-4 in the quarter-final with the frame scores of 46-69, 103-0, 46-76, 66-40, 116-0, 38-72, 12-82, 80-1, 81-0.

Lertsattayathorn was also responsible for knocking out debutant Mohammad Bilal whom he overpowered 4-1 in the pre-quarter-finals with the frame scores of 76-34, 8-80, 65-58, 76-51, 69-16.

Asif and Bilal got off to a winning start in the knockout phase but their compatriots Mohammad Sajjad and Sohail Shahzad crashed in the round of 32.

A total of 58 cueists from as many as 20 countries entered the championship.

While Asif, Bilal and Sajjad reached the round of 32 directly, Sohail Shahzad, having lost two of his four league matches, had to contest the round of 36 as well.

Bilal, who remained undefeated in the preliminary rounds, extended his purple patch by taming Jefrey Roda of Philippines 4-1 with the frame scores of 61-38, 104-0, 34-60, 70-24, 120-0 to advance to the round of 16 with hints of conviction.

Making his debut in the continental event, the Pakistan national champion showed no sign of nerves in his maiden knockout appearance as he chalked up a superb break of 104 in the second frame and followed it up with one of 97 in the final frame.

Asif, the 2012 world amateur champion, who had been seeded second in the event, moved into the round of 16 by overpowering Sundeep Gulati of India 4-2 with the frame scores of 66-17, 44-87, 73-16, 47-72, 76-23, 64-32.

He began with a confident break of 66 which allowed him to win the opening frame. He was beaten in the second frame but another commanding break of 57 helped him snatch the next frame. He was undone in the fourth frame but his break-building ability powered him to take the fifth frame and he sealed the fate of the match by grabbing the sixth frame.

Asif continued his winning form against Sohail Vahedi of Iran whom he outwitted 4-2 in the pre-quarter-final with the frame scores of 41-54, 53-19, 31-76, 71-56, 89-42, 71-40.

Sajjad, a former world number two, who won all his four league matches, was toppled in the very first outing of the knockout phase of the eight-day event.

Sohail Vahedi of Iran elbowed him out 4-3 with the frame scores of 28-74, 61-14, 42-54, 76-53, 33-54, 79-0, 63-32.

Sohail Shahzad began his knockout campaign with a resounding 4-1 victory over Lim Chun Kiat of Singapore with the frame scores of 82-21, 30-68, 90-29, 66-42, 74-44 in the round of 36 fixture.

He, however, went down fighting in the round of 32 as Habib Subah of Bahrain defeated him 4-3 with the frame scores of 5-66, 5-68, 62-55, 11-62, 72-8, 62-54, 86-34.