U-18 world champion Naseem downed in first U-21 match

KARACHI: Naseem Akhtar, the newly crowned World Under-18 snooker champion, suffered a shock defeat on the opening day of the IBSF World Under-21 Championship which got underway in Beijing, China, on Wednesday.

Less than 24 hours after winning the under-18 crown at the same venue, Naseem was edged out by Mingqi Geng of China in his maiden outing of the competition, being contested by 55 cueists from 29 countries who have been divided in 12 groups.

According to the details made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), Mingqi Geng outwitted Naseem 4-3 with the frame scores of 93-8, 75-3, 1-71, 41-81, 76-26, 48-53, 86-27.

Zhang Jiankang, also from China, outgunned Pakistan’s other cueist Haris Tahir 4-1 with the frame scores of 8-121, 66-52, 102-15, 67-18, 100-0.

Naseem went down fighting against a rampaging rival who began the day with quick breaks of 93 and 66 in the first couple of frames.

The Pakistani teenager fought back to make it two-all but another superb break of 56 saw the local cueist surge into lead. Naseem managed to win the fiercely fought sixth frame but he was found wanting in the decisive seventh frame.

Haris began the day with a classy break of 79 which helped him draw the first blood but it remained his only glory of the day.

He fought grimly before losing the second frame but he was comprehensively outplayed in the next three frames as his rival chalked up impressive breaks of 69 and 92 to seal the fate of the match.

Both Pakistani cueists have a chance to come back in the reckoning as Naseem will be taking on Tyler Rees of Wales and Kirill Petrov of Russia in his two matches on Thursday (today). Haris will be up against Jackson Page of Wales in his only match of the day.