Naseem clinches U18 snooker crown

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Naseem Akhtar created history of sorts by winning the IBSF World Under-18 Snooker Championship 2017 which concluded in Beijing, China, on Tuesday.

He became the first Pakistani to win the trophy in any youth event at the global level when he came from behind to overpower local boy Peifan Lei after a keenly contested title clash.

Earlier in the day, he had smashed Amir Nardela of Israel in the semi-finals. The championship was contested by as many as 48 cueists from 29 countries.

According to the details made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), Naseem clinched the crown by outwitting China’s Peifan Lei 5-3 with the frame scores of 20-62, 69-68, 37-71, 19-57, 127-6, 85-40, 61-37, 74-8.

The local favourite had drawn the first blood by chalking up a break of 50 in the opening frame. He was on course to double his lead but Naseem won the second frame by the skin of his teeth.

The Chinese teenager forged ahead again by pocketing the third frame and inched closer towards glory by also winning the next frame to move 3-1 up.

It was at this point that Naseem turned it around to halt the progress of his rival. A break of 56 allowed him to win the fifth frame comfortably. He sustained the momentum in the next three frames to earn another famous victory for Pakistan in cue sports.

Naseem had entered the final with a bang as he whipped Amir Nardela of Israel in straight frames with the scores of 74-19, 82-0, 90-21, 89-42, having chalked up breaks of 69 and 64 in the first couple of frames.

In the other semi-final, which was an all-China contest, Peifan Lei overcame Junjie Bo 4-2 with the scores of  70-42, 29-57, 23-72, 43-40, 76-13, 65-60.

Meanwhile, the World Under-21 Snooker Championship will get underway at the same venue on Wednesday (today).

On the opening day of the league matches, Pakistan’s Haris Tahir will take on Zhang Jiankang of China and Naseem Akhtar will be pitted against Mingqi Geng, also from China.