Sajjad to face Asjad in snooker final

KARACHI: The seeded duo of  Mohammad Sajjad and Asjad  Iqbal booked a date in the final,  defeating their unseeded rivals  in the semi-finals of the 42nd  National Snooker Championship  2017 here at the  Karachi Gymkhana on Monday.  Sajjad cleaned up Khurram  Hussain Agha 6-1 in three  hours with the  frame scores of  97-7, 52-69, 63-  44, 117-8, 82-17,  69-35, 67-2.  Asjad needed  less time to  blast Nadir  Miran 6-1 with  the frame scores being 61-10,  102-0, 86-44, 75-48, 23-79, 68-50,  53-40.  Both the finalists hail from  Sargodha.  The 15-frame final, to be televised  live on Geo Super, is  due to commence at 10 am on  Tuesday (today).  The final will provide the  25-year-old Asjad, who has  never won the National Championship,  an opportunity to  seek revenge from Sajjad, who  had shattered his dreams  seven years ago.  The 32-year-old Sajjad, who  has annexed the national  crown two times, will try to do  it for the third time to make  amends for his inconsistent  performances in the recent  past.  Both the seeded cueists  whipped their rivals with remarkable  ease in the semi-finals.  The vastly experienced  Khurram Agha, now 40, failed  to repeat his heroics of the past  as the local cueist was unable  to come to terms with themercurial  Sajjad, who controlled  the game from the outset.  Khurram, having been  blanked in the opening frame,  showed flashes of brilliance to  take the fiercely fought second  frame but that remained his  only glory on an otherwise forgettable  day for him.  Sajjad doubled his leadwith  a classy break of 111 in the  fourth frame and he proved unstoppable  in the next three  frames to complete a cakewalk  victory.  Earlier in the day, Asjad had  meted out similar treatment to  Nadir, a 29-year-old qualifier  from Jarranwala, a town in  Punjab’s District Faisalabad,  who had stormed into the  semi-finals after creating a few  upsets.  Therewas notmuch the unseeded  cueist could do, however,  to combat the master  class of his  fancied opponent.  A s j a d  started the  game in amost  imp r e s s i v e  manner. After  taking home  the opening frame leisurely, he  fired a break of 102 in the very  next frame. He ran into 4-0 lead  rather quickly.  Nadir opened his account  by pocketing the fifth frame  but was undone by Asjad’s  break of 68 in the sixth frame  and it was all over in the seventh  frame.  The final will be followed  by the prize distribution ceremony  in the afternoon in  which Sindh Governor Mohammad  Zubair will be the  chief guest.