Sajjad falls in semis, grabs bronze medal

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan: Pakistan’s highly-experienced cueist Mohammad Sajjad had to content with a bronze medal when he was beaten by young Yan Bingtao of China 5-3 in the semi-finals of the 6-Red Men’s Singles snooker competitions of the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games here at the well-equipped billiards arena of the Olympic Complex on Thursday.

Sajjad’s bronze inflated Pakistan’s medal tally to two gold, two silver and 14 bronze medals till the filing of the story. It was expected that the World Team Championships runner-up Sajjad will put in his best but he failed to produce an impressive performance, letting his rival romp to a comfortable victory.

The 17-year-old Bingtao played superbly. He had an amazing start to the clash as he went on to win the first frame 60-8 with the highest break of 60 of the contest that enthralled the viewers present at the fantastic billiards hall.

Bingtao made it 2-0 in his favour after lifting the second frame 32-21 with Sajjad making a break of 20 in his unsuccessful effort that did not stop his opponent. Sajjad again failed to find his form in the third frame as his rival put himself in a strong position by winning it 38-13 with a break of 24 to take a 3-0 lead.

Sargodha-born Sajjad reduced the deficit when he secured a 37-0 victory in the fourth frame to make it 1-3. Sajjad engineered a break of 26 in the same frame. Bingtao won the fifth frame 51-4 with a break of 40 to make it 4-1 before Sajjad reduced the deficit to 3-4 by sealing 32-22 and 56-4 victories in the sixth and seventh frames respectively.

Sajjad, who recently won Asian 6-Red Snooker Championship, carded a break of 32 in the sixth and 25 in the seventh frame. His fine fightback did not unsettle the Chinese as he pulled off a 45-11 win in the eighth frame with a break of 26 to seal a comfortable victory in the end.

In the final on Thursday evening, Bingtao was scheduled to face Iran’s Soheil Vahedi.On Wednesday, Sajjad defeated the 2013 Asian Indoor and Martial Games bronze medallist Al Obaidli Ali Nasser of Qatar in the quarter-finals 5-3. Earlier, Sajjad crafted a well-deserved close 5-4 win over Lin Tang Ho Alan of Hong Kong to qualify for the quarter-finals. Sajjad, on Tuesday, had defeated Jordon’s Almaaitah Sharafaldean Riyad Nahar 5-4 in the round-of-32 battle to make an impressive start to his journey.

Mohammad Bilal, the 2016 national champion, was the other Pakistani cueist who played in this event but he exited in the second round. On Tuesday, he was shown the exit door by Soheil Vahedi of Iran, the eventual finalist, with a comprehensive 5-1 win. The 32-year-old Bilal had beaten Nguyen Thanh Binh of Vietnam 5-0 on Tuesday in the round of 32.

Meanwhile Pakistan will begin their medal quest in the team snooker event which will start at the same venue on Friday (today) when they meet Myanmar at 6 pm.Asjad Iqbal, Mohammad Sajjad and Mohammad Bilal will be representing Pakistan in the pre-quarter-finals of the same event. China and India have got byes in the first round while Qatar face Turkmenistan, Jordon take on Thailand, Afghanistan meet United Arab Emirates (UAE), Philippines compete against Hong Kong and Iran clash with Korea in the 14-team competitions.