Under-21 Snooker C’ship league phase ends

KARACHI: With the participants from Sindh having pulled out of the event at the eleventh hour, seven cueists from Punjab, five from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and two each from Balochistan and Islamabad advanced to the pre-quarter-finals of the 9th National Under-21 Snooker Championship 2017 as league matches concluded at the PSB Complex in Islamabad on Monday.

According to the information made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), Naseem Akhtar (Pjb) and Mohammad Rafiq (KP) qualified from the Group A.

Haris Tahir (Pjb) and Mohammad Azam (KP) moved up from the Group B.

Umar Farooq (Pjb) and Mohammad Haris (KP) shared the top two positions in the Group C.

Fahad Ghaffar (Isb) and Mohammad Subhan (Bal) progressed to the last-16 stage from the Group D.

Saud Khan (Pjb) and Sohaib Usman (Isb) took the top two positions from the Group E.

Moez Riaz (Pjb) and Shaikh Ahmed (KP) forced their way into the knockout phase from the Group F.  Usman Ahmed (Pjb) and Usman Khurshid (KP) were the two qualifiers from the Group G.

The top honours in the Group H were shared between Raees Ali Usama (Pjb) and Rabish Perwaiz (Bal).

The tournament was being contested by 24 cueists instead of 32 as

Mohammad Farid, Ali Zaman Khan, Ahmer Ali, Muzammil Khan, Mohammad Salik, Hamza Ikram, Syed Jawwad Shah and Shaharyar Khan did not take part in the tournament, despite having reached Islamabad and checked in at the PSB hostel.

All the eight pre-quarter-finals, to be best-of-seven-frame encounters, will take place on Tuesday (today).

Four matches will commence at 10am and the remaining will begin from 12 noon.

The quarter-finals, also to be best-of-seven-frame contests, will start at 3pm.

The PBSA has decided that the final of the National Under-18 Championship would be staged on Wednesday, instead of Thursday, and the final of the National Under-21 Championship would be held on Thursday.

Results: Sohaib Usman (Isb) bt Junaid Akhtar (KP) 3-1 (71-26, 19-64, 45-40, 63-28); Usman Ahmed (Pjb) bt Mohammad Mahmood (Isb) 3-0 (66-34, 72-10, 33-0); Rabish Perwaiz (Bal) bt Talal Nawaz (KP) 3-1 (47-61, 63-14, 50-23, 69-65); Naseem Akhtar (Pjb) bt Hiskail Bilal (Bal) 3-0 (77-25, 63-16, 79-26); Mohammad Haris (KP) bt Mohammad Aftab (Bal) 3-2 (65-33, 40-36, 47-61, 36-48, 72-37); Shaikh Ahmed (KP) bt Zakir Hussain (Bal) 3-0 (64-42, 50-31, 39-23); Mohammad Azam (KP) bt Mohammad Arif (Bal) 3-1 (72-41, 58-48, 41-45, 59-31); Fahad Ghaffar (Isb) bt Muhammad Shahbaz (Pjb) 3-0 (52-39, 60-37, 60-44).

Today’s fixtures:

Pre-quarter-finals: Mohammad Moez Riaz (Pjb) v Mohammad Azam (KP); Mohammad Subhan (Bal) v Umer Farooq (Pjb); Naseem Akhtar (Pjb) v Rabish Perwaiz (Bal); Sohaib Usman (Isb) v Usman Ahmed (Pjb); Saud Khan (Pjb) v Mohammad Haris (KP); Usman Khurshid (KP) v Haris Tahir (Pjb); Raees Ali Usama (Pjb) v Shaikh Ahmed (KP); Mohammad Rafiq (KP) v Fahad Ghaffar (Isb).