Asif, Bilal, Babar in World Snooker knockout phase

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Bilal and Babar Masih advanced into the knockout phase of the IBSF World Men’s Snooker Championship in Doha.

Their compatriots Naveen Kumar Perwani and Imran Shahzad also secured their knockout spots in the IBSF World Masters Snooker Championship.

According to the results made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) here on Wednesday, five of the six Pakistani cueists made their way into the next round. The sixth one, Azhar Khan, also stood a chance of entering the knockout phase of the masters’ event.

Bilal extended his winning run by toppling Sam Bond of New Zealand 4-1 with the frame scores of 73-18, 67-21, 20-73, 70-17, 100-45. In his first couple of outings, he had beaten Mohsen Bukshaisha of Qatar and Felix Frede of Germany.

There were defeats, however, for and Asif and Babar. The 2012 world champion Asif, who had pocketed his first three games against Hisham Nadi of Egypt, Hesham Alsaqer of Bahrain and Ali Alobaidli of Qatar, was brought down by Thomas Dowling of Ireland who won 4-2 with the frame scores of 96-31, 49-69, 70-15, 22-98, 70-52, 83-24.

Babar was undone by Soheil Vahedi of Iran who edged him out 4-3 with the scores of 60-52, 117-0, 64-69, 22-105, 16-63, 94-0, 70-36.

It turned out to be a very exciting contest going to the distance of seven frames.

Sohail chalked up a break of 113 in the second frame and Babar responded with a break of 100 in the fourth frame.  The Iranian, however, seized the initiative with another break of 90 in the crucial sixth frame.