KARACHI: Pakistan’s contingent of seven cueists endured mixed fortunes on the fourth day of league matches in the IBSF World Snooker Championships 2017 being staged in Doha, Qatar. According to the information made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) on Tuesday, the experienced duo of Mohammad Asif and Asjad Iqbal outwitted their respective rivals while debutants Mubashir Raza and Mohammad Naseem Akhtar succumbed to defeats in the Men’s Championship. Mohammad Yousuf and Khurram Agha extended their unbeaten run but Imran Shahzad lost his first game in the Masters Championship. Mohammad Asif, the 2012 world champion, returned to his winning ways Ahmed by routing Aly Elsayed of USA in straight frames with the scores of 64-24, 129-10, 73-58, 84-28 which included a century break of 116 in the second frame. It was third victory in four matches for Asif who was shocked by Ko Htet of Myanmar in the previous outing after having defeated Emad Seif of Yemen and Pandurangaiah of India. His last league game will be against Mateusz Baranowski of Poland. Asjad continued his excellent form in the Group M as he blasted Grzegorz Biemadski of Poland in straight frames with the scores being 64-22, 65-6, 69-22, 85-21. He fired breaks of 55 and 65 during the first couple of frames before signing off with a break of 77 in the fourth frame. In his earlier games he had also blanked Waleed Majid of Qatar in straight frames before toppling Keishin Kamihashi of Japan 4-2. He will now be taking on Steve Mifsud of Australia and Yilmaz Yildrim of Turkey in remaining league matches. Ahmed Saif of Qatar outwitted Mubashir Raza 4-2 with the frame scores of 67-15, 70-63, 84-5, 50-77, 16-73, 81-0. The debutant had emerged triumphant in his earlier couple of games of the Group L, having floored Andreas Ploner of Austria and Pawel Rogoza of Poland. His opponents in the last preliminary round fixture will be Rafii Amrou of Morocco. Yuttapop Pakpoj of Thailand overwhelmed the other debutant, Naseem Akhtar 4-1 with the frame scores of 5-76, 71-0, 117-0, 69-10, 61-41. Pakistan’s teenaged sensation had begun his campaign by whipping Osama Anga of Libya in straight frames in the Group Q. Ivan Kakovsky of Russia, however, defeated him in the next game. He will now be pitted against Brendan O’Donoghue of Ireland and Zayed Alkhayarin of Qatar in his remaining league outings. Pakistan’s senior cueists continued to have an impressive record in their Masters event. Yousuf, a former champion, outsmartedAnthony Bonnar of Ireland 3-2 with the frame scores of 23-72, 52-50, 57-8, 27-70, 88-9 before taming Chris Todd of Australia 3-1 with the scores of 66-23, 69-18, 62-69, 62-37. In his earlier games he had prevailed over Januario Souza of Brazil and Frank Schroder of Germany. Khurram Hussain Agha, having overpowered Alexey Borminskiy of Russia and Juha Lehto of Finland in his previous games, smashed Sinan Cetinkaya of Turkey in straight frames with the scores of 67-14, 90-8, 78-9, chalking up breaks of 50, 70 and 70 in successive frames. Imran Shahzad, who had whipped both his earlier rivals, Wang Chooi Tan of Belgium and Richard Emery of England in straight frames, went down fighting against Ihab Al-Salih of Iraq who won the thrilling encounter 3-2 with the scores of 51-76, 8-105, 62-37, 72-39, 59-50.
