Pak cueists out of Under-21 Asian Snooker

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Naseem Akhtar and Haris Tahir succumbed to their respective Chinese opponents in the knockout phase of the ACBS Under-21 Asian Snooker Championship 2017 being held in Chandigarh, India.

The 16-year-old Fan Zhengyi blew the whistle on Naseem, of the same age, in the semi-finals.

The 17-year-old Haris was edged out by Yuan Sijun, 16, in the quarter-finals.

Yuan Sijun later overpowered the 19-year-old Pongsak Chongjairak of Thailand in the semi-finals to set up an all-China final, to be a best-of-11-frame contest, on Friday (today).

Pakistan’s chances of laying hands on the Under-21 trophy had looked bright at the start of the penultimate day but both their cueists, who had remained unbeaten in the preliminary rounds and had overcome their rivals in the pre-quarter-finals, failed to go the distance.

Pakistan’s third cueist, Mohammad Rafiq, had crashed in the first round, having suffered defeat in all his three matches.

Naseem kept Pakistan’s hopes alive by advancing to the semi-finals as he was able to outwit Zhang Jiankang of China 5-3 in the quarter-finals with the scores of 15-67, 84-0, 56-80, 90-28, 72-36, 39-81, 72-09, 88-0.

Having chalked up a break of 89 in the third frame, the rampaging Pakistani youngster signed off with a break of 80.

Yuan Sijun, however, prevailed over Haris after a grim nine-frame battle in the quarter-finals, winning it 5-4 with the scores of 19-94, 9-63, 10-129, 66-38, 39-68, 69-62, 105-2, 48-60, 72-29.

Haris’ big breaks of 66, 51 and 118 were not enough to keep him afloat in the competition.

China’s Fan Zhengyi proved too good for Naseem in the semi-finals, winning the contest by a comfortable 5-1 margin with the frame scores of 64-67, 60-13, 103-28, 62+29, 69-09, 65-55.

The Pakistani teenager had threatened to pull it back in the sixth frame but the Chinese had the last laugh with a superb clearance.