Bilal remains unbeaten in World Snooker

KARACHI: Mohammad Bilal remained the lone undefeated cueist from Pakistan in the league matches of the IBSF World Men’s Snooker Championship in Doha, while compatriots Naveen Kumar Perwani and Imran Shahzad extended their unbeaten run in the IBSF World Masters Snooker Championship.

According to the results made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) here on Thursday, Bilal emerged triumphant in all his four league matches.

Mohammad Asif and Babar Masih won three of their four matches to also qualify for the knockout phase of the men’s event.

Bilal faced no problems in disposing of Belan Sharityof Sweden 4-1 with the scores of 96-33, 25-59, 64-52, 80-51, 81-16. He registered breaks of 63 and 56 in the first and fourth frames, respectively.

Babar blanked Arenc Norja of Albania in straight frames with the scores of 90-6, 62-34, 99-2, 91-7, signing off with half century breaks in the last couple of frames.

Naveen and Imran secured their slots in the knockout rounds of the master’s event.

The fate of Azhar Khan depended on results of other matches in his group.

Azhar jeopardised his chances of progressing to the next round by succumbing to another defeat, his second in three outings, at the hands of Cader Mohamed of Mauritius who won 3-1 with the frame scores of 56-37, 35-53, 62-33, 69-30.

Naveen continued to demonstrate his prowess in the master’s event as he overpowered Tom O’ Driscoll of Ireland 3-1 with the scores of 61-72, 74-41, 67-58, 77-37, having fired a break of 43 in the second frame.

Imran was even more aggressive as he thrashed Graham Beardmore of England 3-1 with the scores 27-92, 128-1, 89-1, 54-4.

After losing the opening frame, he bounced back like a wounded tiger and chalked up breaks of 128, 67 and 52 in the next three frames to win the encounter rather leisurely in the end.