Asif retains ranking snooker title

KARACHI: Seventh seed Mohammad Asif retained his title by outsmarting fourth seeded Mohammad Bilal in the final of NBP Ranking Snooker Championship 2016 here at the NBP Sports Complex on Monday.

The 34-year-old Asif, a former world champion, overpowered Bilal, the 30-year-old reigning national champion, 8-3 in the all-Punjab, best-of-15-frame final with the scores of 64-56, 5-88, 44-69, 72-34, 62-49, 60-18, 130-1, 69-36, 83-5, 29-72, 107-32.

The enigmatic Asif extended his winning record against the mercurial Bilal, who had looked impeccable in the earlier matches.

Asif opened his account by pocketing the closely fought first frame. Bilal responded strongly by taking the next couple of frames, firing a break of 61 in the third.

It was Asif all the way after that as he won the next five frames on a trot to grab 7-2 lead. It included a break of 62 in the fifth frame and one of 130 in the seventh frame.

Bilal secured the 10th frame handsomely but Asif wrapped up the issue in the 11th frame.

Mudassir H Khan, SEVP & Group Chief, Commercial, Retail Banking Group, NBP, presented a cash award of Rs60,000, alongwith the winner’s trophy, to Asif. Bilal received a purse of Rs35,000 with the runner-up trophy.

The losing semi-finalists, Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir and Mohammad Sajjad, had to be content with Rs15,000 each.

The losing quarter-finalists, Babar Masih, Shahram Changezi, Sharjeel Mahmood and Mohammad Ijaz, got Rs5,000 each.

Sharjeel of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa claimed a cash award of Rs5,000 for the highest break of the championship (140) which he had chalked up during the course of his 4-1 victory over the eventual champion, Asif, in the preliminary rounds.

Talking to the media, Asif admitted that he faced additional pressure because of the high expectations whenever he went to the table after the World Championship triumph in 2012. “Obviously it’s not always possible to meet the expectations. After all the opponents also come to the table for glories. I try my best to keep delivering,” he remarked.

“I had a kind of psychological advantage over Bilal, having beaten him a few times. That helped today as well,” Asif reckoned.

The former world champion was full of praise, however, for Zulfiqar and Sharjeel.

Bilal, a man of few words, conceded that the rub of the green didn’t go his way in the final unlike in the semi-final against Sajjad the other day. “Hard work holds the key to success. Today was not my day but I will continue working hard to come up with better results in future,” he added. A total of 27 top cueists of the country took part in the championship.