Asjad, Shahid, Sattar, Ijaz in snooker semis

KARACHI: Asjad Iqbal, Shahid Aftab, Abdul Sattar and Mohammad Ijaz moved into the semi-finals of the 9th NBP Ranking Snooker Championship 2017 here at the NBP Sports Complex in Clifton on Sunday.

Both the best-of-11-frame semi-finals will be held on Monday (today). In the morning session, due to start at 11 am, second seed Asjad will be taking on unseeded Ijaz in an all-Punjab battle.

It will be followed by the encounter between fifth seed Shahid of Punjab and unseeded Sattar of Sindh. The best-of-15-frame final will be taking place on Tuesday (tomorrow).All four best-of-nine-frame quarter-finals turned out to be keenly contested affairs.

Sattar came from behind to edge out Mohammad Bilal in a tie extending to all nine frames and Ijaz was also stretched to the full distance by Haris Tahir.Shahid overpowered Mubashir Raza after an eight-frame duel and Asjad was also taken to as many frames by Majid Ali.

Sattar bravely overcame the early onslaught from Bilal, a former national champion, who started off with sensational breaks of 139 and 70 in the first couple of frames to go 2-0 up rather quickly.

But the local cueist showed great skills and temperament to pull it back to win the match 5-4 with the frame scores 0-139, 39-99, 21-69, 53-51, 72-48, 15-85, 68-56, 64-41, 66-20.Fortunes fluctuated dramatically in the game between Ijaz and Haris which the former won 5-4 with the frame scores of 24-68, 66-28, 68-61, 0-79, 31-76, 88-43, 68-62, 15-59, 94-12.

Haris fired a break of 75 in the fourth frame which allowed him to draw level but Ijaz was equal to the task and didn’t let his rival take a decisive lead. Ijaz sealed the fate of the match with a break of 54 in the ninth frame.

Second seed Asjad was given some anxious moments by the unseeded Majid but he succeeded in winning the absorbing quarter-final 5-3 with the frame scores of 86-17, 30-48, 56-18, 86-63, 35-80, 59-08, 37-72, 61-32.

Fifth seed Shahid did not have an easy sailing either as he was tested by Mubashir in another keenly contested quarter-final before pocketing it 5-3 with the frame scores of 65-30, 36-70, 20-49, 9-64, 90-12, 72-29, 70-39, 78-30.