Hamza, 12, storms into Under-18 Snooker quarters

KARACHI: As many as seven cueists from Punjab, including 12-year-old Hamza Ilyas, stormed into the quarter-finals of the 2nd National Under-18 Snooker Championship as they overcame their rivals in the pre-quarter-finals at the PSB Complex in Islamabad on Wednesday.

According to the results made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), Hamza, Umar Azhar, Raees Ali Usama, Naseem Akhtar, Shazaib Malik, Shaikh Mudassir and Saud Khan from Punjab moved into the quarter-finals. The eighth quarter-finalist is Mohammad Rafique of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

All four cueists from Sindh crashed in the pre-quarter-finals.  No one from Balochistan or Islamabad had made it to the last-16 stage.

In the best-of-seven-frame quarter-finals, to be contested on Friday (today), Umar (Pjb) will be pitted against Raees (Pjb), Naseem (Pjb) will take on Shazaib (Pjb), Mudassir ((Pjb) will be up against Hamza (Pjb) and Rafique (KP) will be in action against Saud (Pjb).

Unseeded Raees stunned second seed and Sindh Cup champion Shiraz Raza after a grueling seven-frame battle, winning it 4-3 with the scores of 75-40, 5-88, 28-82, 18-71, 56-54, 51-69, 71-55.

Umar, another unseeded teenager, was even more ruthless while eliminating third seed and KP Cup champion Shaikh Ahmed, whom he hammered in straight frames with the scores of 76-13, 70-35, 59-18, 70-42.

Top seeded Naseem, also Punjab Cup champion, whipped Ahsan Ramzan in straight frames with the scores of 70-42, 64-37, 65-38, 63-36.

Shazaib hammered Abdullah Saeed of Sindh, defeating him 4-1 with the scores of 61-14, 51-28, 61-27, 31-44, 81-43.

Mudassir extended Punjab’s dominance by trouncing Shaharyar Khan of Sindh in straight frames with the scores being 38-33, 62-29, 64-32, 50-17.

Hamza tamed Rameen Ashraf of Sindh 4-2 with the scores of 29-51, 72-37, 26-70, 62-9, 60-3, 59-27.

Saud reached the last-eight by edging out Umar Farooq 4-2 in the all-Punjab pre-quarter-final with the frame scores of 31-70, 60-21, 56-43, 58-13, 42-64, 54-21. Rafique became the only KP quarter-finalist when he defeated Punjab’s Mohammad Saqib Jr 4-1 with the frame scores of 58-53, 32-47, 85-21, 71-7, 60-27.