National Snooker Championship rolls into action today

KARACHI: A record number of 56 cueists from all over the country, including five juniors, will be in action at the 42nd edition of the Jubilee Insurance National Snooker Championship 2017 which gets underway here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Sunday (today).

Defending champion Mohammad Bilal, Babar Masih, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Sajjad, Sohail Shahzad, Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir, Shahram Changezi and Asjad Iqbal are the eight seeded cueists with the trio of Sultan Mohammad, Mohammad Saqib and Mohammad Ahsan Javed being the wild card entrants.

According to the draws made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) here on Saturday, the 56 participants have been divided equally in eight groups for the preliminary rounds at the end of which the top two cueists from each group will be advancing to the knockout phase, starting with the pre-quarter-finals.

Top seed and defending champion Mohammad Bilal has been placed in the Group A alongwith Umar Farooq, Aakash Rafique, Musaddiq Mahmood, Zahoor Ahmed, Mohammad Majid Ali and Mohammad Ahsan Javed, while second seed Babar Masih has been drawn in Group B in the company of Mohammad Rafique, Khurram Hussain Agha, Fawad Khan, Asif Toba, Saeed Ahmed and Mohammad Saqib.

The Group C comprises third seed Mohammad Asif, Haris Khan, Bahadur Khan, Imran Shahzad, Mohammad Yousuf, Mohammad Imran and Sultan Mohammad, while Group D contains fourth seed Mohammad Sajjad besides Mohammad Naseem Akhtar, Mohammad Naeem Jaffer, Farhan Khan, Mohammad Ishtiaq and Zeeshan Raza.

Fifth seed Sohail Shahzad leads the pack in Group E in the presence of Abu Saim, Shaikh Mohammad Mudassir, Mohammad Faizan, Nadir Imran, Abdul Raziq and Fazal Umar Butt, while Group F features sixth seed Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir alongwith Mohammad Ijaz, Shah Khan, Hunain Aamir, Ahmed Shah, Abdul Sattar and Sarbuland Khan.

Seventh seed Shahram Changezi heads Group G also having Shahid Aftab, Agha Bilawal, Umair Zulfiqar, Aamir Shahzad, Mohammad Afzal and Shahid Shafiq, while Group H is composed of eighth seed Asjad Iqbal, Sharjeel Mahmood, Farhan Noor, Allah Noor, Mohammad Umair Aziz, Aamir Sohail, Mubashir Raza and Abdul Rahim.

The league matches will be best of seven-frame contests, while the pre-quarter-finals and quarter-finals will be best of nine-frame duels. The semi-finals will be best of 11-frame matches, while the final will be best of 15-frame clash. As in the past, both the semi-finals and final will be telecast live on Geo Super.

The prize money at stake will be Rs 272,000 with the winner to take home a purse of Rs 100,000 while the runner-up will collect Rs 50,000. The losing semi-finalists will be getting Rs 20,000 each, the losing quarter-finalists will be receiving Rs 10,000 each and the losing pre-quarter-finalists will be compensated with Rs 4,000 each, while the highest break award will be worth Rs 10,000.

There are added incentives for the winner and runner-up of the event, who will qualify to represent the country in the 33rd Asian Snooker Championship 2017 scheduled to be held at Doha, Qatar, from April 22 to 28.