Babar crash out of 6-Red World Snooker

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Babar Masih made an early exit from the Sagnsom 6-Red World Snooker Championship 2016 whose preliminary round matches concluded in Bangkok, Thailand, on Wednesday.

According to the information made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), Babar suffered his fourth defeat in fifth and final league outing when Ryan Day of Wales outwitted him 5-3 with the frame scores of 39-35, 0-70, 7-55, 70-0, 22-34, 44-0, 37-13, 47-0,

In the earlier matches, Babar could only show occasional brilliance against his fancied opponents, all of them being current or former professionals, and failed to produce the kind of spark that had earned him a slot in one of the most sought-after global snooker events of the world.

He had his moments in the last match as well. After going down narrowly in the opening frame, he stunned his Welsh rival with a magnificent break of 70 in the second frame before pocketing the next one as well.

Babar was reduced to being a mere spectator in the fourth frame when Day swiftly compiled a break of 70 to draw level but the advantage was with the Pakistani cueist again when he grabbed the fifth frame to move 3-2 up.

The Welshman fought back and took control of the situation like a true professional without giving liberties to Babar, who was beaten neck and crop in the last three frames.

Babar, having earned his maiden points by edging out Wayne Brown of England after a nine-frame thriller on the second day of the event, had to be content with the sixth and last position in the points table in Group E.

Brown, who also won only one of his five matches, finished fifth in the table because of superior frame difference than Babar. The quartet of Stuart Bingham (England), Ryan Day (Wales), Ratchapol Pu-Ob-Orm (Thailand) and Darren Morgan (Wales) moved into the knockout phase from Group E by virtue of sharing the top four positions.

Hailing from the city of Rawalpindi, Babar has become the fourth cueist from Pakistan – Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Sajjad, Hamza Akbar and Mohammad Majid Ali being the others – to have contested the invitational Sagnsom 6-Red World Snooker Championship.