Hamza stuns KP Cup winner Ahmed

KARACHI: Unseeded Hamza Ilyas of Punjab stunned third seed Shaikh Ahmed, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Cup champion, on the second day of the 2nd National Under-18 Snooker Championship 2017 at the PSB Complex in Islamabad on Tuesday.

According to the results made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), top seeded Naseem Akhtar, who is also the Punjab Cup champion, won his second match on a trot.

Shiraz Raza, the Sindh Cup champion and second seed, registered his first win in two outings.

Unseeded Saud Khan of Punjab, who had created sensations by routing Shiraz Raza on the first day of the competition, registered his second successive win by blanking Annas Larik of Islamabad.  Muhammad Mudassir of Punjab fired a break of 65 in the second frame against Munsifuddin of KP which remained the highest of the day. He had chalked up a break of 60 against Mohammad Abbas of Islamabad on the opening day.

The preliminary round matches will conclude on Wednesday (today). The top two from each of the eight groups will proceed to the pre-quarter-finals, which will be played on Thursday (tomorrow).

Pakistan Sports Board’s (PSB) director general Dr Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera visited the PSB Snooker Hall to witness a few matches on Tuesday.

He appreciated the performance of the youngsters.

The PSB DG assured tournament director Naveed Kapadia of full support of the Board in organising the annual event in a befitting manner.

Results: Naseem Akhtar (Pjb) bt Ahmad Ali (Isb) 3-0 (85-7, 51-8, 74-17); Shiraz Raza (Sindh) bt Atif Arshad (KP) 3-2 (62-20, 24-49, 52-13, 29-37, 60-36); Hamza Ilyas (Pjb) bt Shaikh Ahmad (KP) 3-1 (57-30, 58-21, 35-65, 53-18); Mohammad Rafique (KP) bt Abdul Moiz Kashif (Isb) 3-2 (77-28, 55-84, 30-63, 73-33, 63-8); Raees Ali Usama (Pjb) bt Kamran Chaudhry (Isb) 3-1 (68-38, 37-46, 67-57, 71-34); Abdullah Saeed (Sindh) bt Mohammad Abbas (Isb) 3-1 (54-42, 69-42, 21-95, 55-30); Umar Azhar (Pjb) bt Shawaiz Moris (KP) 3-0 (70-8, 60-33, 54-33); Rameen Ashraf (Sindh) bt Faiz-ur-Rahman (KP) 3-1 (18-60, 52-20, 61-49, 58-42); Umar Farooq (Pjb) bt Mubashir Khan (KP) 3-1 (60-23, 32-56, 68-6, 59-16); Saud Khan (Pjb) bt Annas Larik (Isb) 3-0 (77-17, 71-41, 82-1) Mohammad Ali (Isb) bt Junaid Hassan (KP) 3-1 (53-30, 32-42, 42-30, 66-25); Ahsan Ramzan (Pjb) bt Faisal-ur-Rahman (KP) 3-0 (77-7, 62-29, 71-4); Shaharyar Khan (Sindh) bt Abdullah Rizwan (KP) 3-0 (51-19, 58-17, 52-32); Shaikh Mudassir (Pjb) bt Munsifuddin (KP) 3-0 (70-15, 71-16, 53-6); Shazaib Malik (Pjb) bt Umair Khan (Bal) 3-0 (62-13, 59-23, 56-8).