Hamza regains snooker crown

KARACHI: Fourth seed Hamza Akbar regained the crown by overpowering unseeded Shahram Changezi in the final of the National Snooker championship here on Monday.
The 21-year-old Hamza, hailing from the industrial town of Faisalabad, joined the select band of cueists who have clinched the national title more than once as he overcame the 31-year-old Shahram, from Islamabad, 8-4 in the best-of-15-frame final with the scores being 81-26, 68-27, 40-63, 68-5, 50-64, 101-20, 97-27, 58-72, 66-24, 78-51, 64-72, 68-28. Fresh from the demolition of top seed Mohammad Sajjad in the semi-final less than 24 hours ago, Hamza rode his luck and played positively to overcome the rival, 10 years senior to him.
The inability of Shahram to put together big breaks cost him the final.
Hamza ran away with the first couple of frames rather leisurely. A break of 56 allowed Hamza to go into 3-1 lead but his rival fought back in the next frame to make it 2-3.
Breaks of 58 and 57 in successive frames put Hamza 5-2 in front. Shahram snatched the eighth frame but lost the next two. With just one more frame needed for completing victory, Hamza came close to doing it in the 11th frame, but lost it narrowly. It only delayed the inevitable by half an hour as he sealed the fate of the match in the very next frame.
Hamza collected a purse of Rs80,000 with the glittering winner’s trophy. Shahram claimed a cash award of Rs50,000. Mohammad Sajjad and Mohammad Asif, the losing semi-finalists, received Rs20,000 each.
Sajjad, alongwith Sultan Mohammad, shared the highest break award of Rs10,000.
Alamgir Anwar Shaikh, Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) President, announced that both the finalists, Hamza and Shahram, would represent Pakistan in the ACBS Asian Snooker championship 2015 in Malaysia later this year.
Speaking on the occasion, Hamza admitted having been favoured by the rub of the green in the semi-final as well as the final. “Indeed I was quite fortunate in both these crucial games. Those lucky moments enabled me to pull off victories against Shahram and Sajjad,” he said.
Hamza earned the distinction of having played in three successive finals of the national championship.
He had clinched the crown at an age of 19 a couple of years ago. He was unable to retain the trophy last year when he was overpowered by Asif Toba in the final.
Shahram rued the missed chances in the final. He conceded that the lady luck had helped his cause in the tensely-fought semi-final against Asif. “Life is a great leveler and it was not my day in the final. Things didn’t go my way and it was the time for my younger opponent to reap the benefit. It is satisfying for me to have made it to the final of the national championship and now I look forward to doing well for the country in international events,” he observed.
Jubilee General Insurance Managing Director Tahir Ahmed was the chief guest. Squash legend Jahangir Khan and Commissioner Karachi Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui were the guests of honour.