KARACHI: Pakistan’s cueists have extended their brilliant run for the second day running in the IBSF World Snooker Championships 2017 in Doha. According to the information made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) on Sunday, Mohammad Asif, Asjad Iqbal and Mubashir Raza emerged triumphant in their opening matches of the Men’s Championship with only Naseem Akhtar suffering a defeat. Imran Shahzad, Mohammad Yousuf and Khurram Agha got off to a winning start in the Masters Championship.Asif, a former world champion, started off magnificently in the Group E by whacking Emad Seif of Yemen in straight frames with the scores of 71-0, 73-12, 72-12, 93-0 as he signed off with a classy break of 93. He, however, was tested by Pandurangaiah of India in his second match that went to the full distance of seven frames with the 2012 world champion chalking up a break of 50 in the decisive frame to win the encounter 4-3 with the scores of 61-35, 72-50, 75-37, 0-82, 53-78, 55-63, 72-26. Asif’s remaining league matches will be against Mateusz Baranowski (Poland), Ahmed Aly Elsayed (USA) and Ko Htet (Myanmar).Asjad blasted Waleed Majid of Qatar in straight frames with the scores of 79-39, 98-0, 90-30, 69-13 in his opening match of the Group M as he prepared to take on Steve Mifsud (Australia), Grzegorz Biemadski (Poland), Keishin Kamihashi (Japan) and Yilmaz Yildrim (Turkey) in remaining matches. Debutant Mubashir had a dream start to his international career as he edged out Andreas Ploner of Austria 4-3 with the scores of 45-35, 71-36, 0-85, 20-78, 69-32, 38-73, 83-29 in the Group L. His other opponents in the preliminary rounds will be Ahmed Saif (Qatar), Pawel Rogoza (Poland) and Rafii Amrou (Morocco). Teenaged Naseem was downed by Osama Anga of Libya who won the Group Q match 4-1 with the frame scores of 5-85, 57-39, 61-33, 69-23, 72-36. The talented youngster will be pitted against Brendan O’Donoghue (Ireland), Yuttapop Pakpoj (Thailand), Ivan Kakovsky (Russia) and Zayed Alkhayarin (Qatar) in his other league outings. Pakistan’s senior cueists had unblemished record in their opening games. Yousuf, a former champion, edged out Januario Souza of Brazil 3-2 with the scores of 15-68, 13-62, 58-20, 71-31, 76-5 and Khurram overpowered Alexey Borminskiy Russia 3-1 with the scores of 84-23, 41-70, 70-17, 85-0. Imran, who whipped Wang Chooi Tan of Belgium in straight frames with the scores being 75-17, 62-22, 59-10 in his opening game, meted out similar treatment to Richard Emery of England with the scores being 89-28, 70-14, 60-22. The 2017 World Championships for Men, Women and Masters, being organised simultaneously by the International Billiards & Snooker Federation (IBSF), will continue until November 27.A total of 88 cueists from 36 countries are taking part in the Men’s event while 54 participants from 27 countries, are in action in the Masters competition. There are 16 groups for the preliminary rounds in the Men’s contest. The top four cueists from each of the 16 groups will qualify for the knockout phase starting with the rounds of 64 in the Men’s Championship. The top three cueists from each of the 10 groups will make it to the knockout stage with the round of 30 in the Masters Championship.
