Top quartet book semi-final berths

KARACHI: The fancied quartet of Mohammad Sajjad, Hamza Akbar, Mohammad Asif and Shahram Changezi stormed into the semi-finals of the Jubilee Insurance 40th National Snooker Championship 2015 by overcoming their respective rivals in the quarter-finals here at the Movenpick Hotel on Saturday.
Both the best of 11-frame semi-finals, to be telecast live on Geo Super, will be played on Sunday (today).
In the first semi-final, due to begin at 10 am, sixth seed and former world champion Mohammad Asif will take on Shahram Changezi, while top seeded Mohammad Sajjad will lock horns with fourth seed Hamza Akbar in the other pre-final, scheduled to commence at 1 pm.
Mohammad Sajjad, Mohammad Asif, Hamza Akbar and Shahram Changezi moved into the last four by toppling Aakash Rafique, Khurram Hussain Agha, Mohammad Imran and Babar Masih, respectively.
Mohammad Sajjad of Punjab extended his brilliant form to topple Aakash Rafique of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 5-2 with the frame scores of 74-41, 77-12, 64-58, 29-62, 75-0, 35-89, 69-54.
The top seeded cueist began with a bang as he fired a break of 70 in the very first frame. He survived a close third frame to make it 3-0. Aakash finally opened his account by winning the fourth frame but Sajjad regained momentum with a break of 75 in the fifth frame.
The unseeded youngster fought back to take the sixth frame to make it 4-2 but his hopes of beating the two-time national champion were dashed in the seventh frame.
Fourth seed Hamza Akbar and unseeded Mohammad Imran, both hailing from Punjab, were engaged in a tense eight-frame duel which the former won 5-3 with the scores of 94-13, 67-59, 36-62, 36-64, 64-19, 78-46, 56-57, 52-11.
Hamza, regarded as one of the top cueists of the country, drew first blood by chalking up a break of 93 in the opening frame but he was made to fight to the wire for the second frame.
Imran showed great character by pulling it back as he claimed the next couple of frames to make it 2-all. Hamza brought all his expertise into play to snatch the next two frames to go into a 4-2 lead but his opponent kept the contest alive by taking the seventh. The seeded cueist, however, sealed the fate of the match by winning the next frame.
Mohammmad Asif of Punjab was made to work hard to earn his 5-3 victory over Khurram Agha from Sindh with the frame scores being 41-58, 86-9, 69-27, 40-58, 65-26, 83-10, 20-59, 103-9.
Asif, who had annexed the world crown in 2012, was not sailing smooth against the veteran Khurram, who had remained the top ranked cueist of the country for the better part of the last decade. The breaks of 61 and 83 helped the cause of Asif immensely in the the closely fought encounter.
Shahram Changezi, a former national champion from Islamabad, showed his master class as he tamed Punjab’s Babar Masih 5-3 with the frame scores of 24-93, 63-16, 28-105(, 87-0, 1-95, 116-0, 72-40, 55-8.
As anticipated, the battle between the two in-form cueists turned out to be a cracker and both of them produced high-class stuff.
Babar, a wild card entrant in the tournament, began with a break of 52 to take the opening frame but Shahram responded with a break of 55 in the very next frame to make it one-all. Babar went into lead again with the help of a break of 58 in the third frame before Shahram equalised with a sizzling break of 87 in the fourth frame.
Babar moved ahead yet again with another classy break of 95 in the fifth frame and Shahram returned the compliments with a majestic break of 104 in the next outing to make it three-all.
Shahram earned a lead for the first time by winning the seventh frame and he sustained the momentum into the next frame to force his way into the semi-finals.