IBSF World Snooker Championships 2017: All Pak cueists qualify for knockout phase

KARACHI: All the seven participating cueists from Pakistan succeeded in qualifying for the knockout phase of 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 Thursday, debutant Mohammad Naseem Akhtar and Imran Shahzad emerged triumphant in their last league matches to join their compatriots in the knockout rounds. The quartet of Mohammad Asif, Asjad Iqbal, Mubashir Raza and Naseem Akhtar qualified for the round of 64 of the Men’s Championship while the trio of Mohammad Yousuf, Khurram Hussain Agha and Imran Shahzad advanced to the round of 30 of the Masters Championship.
In the Men’s Championship round of 64, Mohammad Asif will take on Moh Keen Hoo of Malaysia, Asjad Iqbal will confront Yazan Alhadad of Syria, Naseem Akhtar will lock horns with Lee Chun Wai of Hong Kong and Mubahsir Raza will clash with Vladyslav Vyshnevsky of Ukraine. The draws for the knockout phase of the Masters Championship were to be taken out late on Thursday evening.
The 18-year-old Naseem Akhtar, who was struggling to stay afloat in the competition, reproduced his top form to whack Zayed Alkhayarin of Qatar in straight frames with the scores 80-0, 65-6, 98-5, 70-21, firing breaks of 53 and 57 with cool head which earned him the lifeline. The promising teenager had jeopardized his chances by losing to Brendan O’Donoghue of Ireland, Yuttapop Pakpoj of Thailand and Ivan Kakovsky of Russia but his big wins over Osama Anga of Libya and Zayed Alkhayarin of Qatar enabled him to move ahead.
Mohammad Asif, the 2012 world champion, overcame Mateusz Baranowski of Poland 4-3 with the frame scores being 111-8, 0-84, 46-63, 40-77, 91-17, 76-36, 67-49.
It was his fourth victory in five games as he had earlier overpowered Emad Seif of Yemen, Pandurangaiah of India and Aly Elsayed of USA while his solitary loss came against Ko Htet of Myanmar. Steve Mifsud of Australia ended Asjad Iqbal’s unbeaten run by defeating him 4-2 with the frame scores of 39-77, 86-28, 81-28, 0-135, 68-45, 112-0.
Even the superb break of 135 in the fourth frame couldn’t turn the tide in favour of the Pakistani cueist who had already booked his spot in the round of 64 by having won his previous games against Yilmaz Yildrim of Turkey, Grzegorz Biemadski of Poland, Waleed Majid of Qatar and Keishin Kamihashi of Japan.
Mubashir Raza had also secured his place inthe knockout rounds registering victories over Rafii Amrou of Morocco, Andreas Ploner of Austria and Pawel Rogoza of Poland while suffering the odd defeat at the hands of Ahmed Saif of Qatar.
Mohammad Yousuf, a former champion, remained the only unbeaten Pakistani cueist in the Masters Championship as he was awarded walkover against Mohammad Al-Binali of Qatar. He had earlier outwitted Anthony Bonnar of Ireland, Chris Todd of Australia, Januario Souza of Brazil and Frank Schroder of Germany.
Khurram Agha, having booked his berth for the round of 30 by winning his previous matches against Alexey Borminskiy of Russia, Juha Lehto of Finland and Sinan Cetinkaya of Turkey, was overwhelmed Darren Morgan of Wales who won the last league match 3-1 with the scores of 66-29, 35-85, 76-24, 68-0. Imran Shahzad came back into his elements in his final league outing by smashing Dale Kwok of New Zealand in straight frames with the scores of 65-60, 58-27, 132-0 to enter the knockout rounds.
He had earlier also whipped the duo of Wang Chooi Tan of Belgium and Richard Emery of England in straight frames in his first couple of games before suffering back to back defeats at the hands of Noel Rodrigues Moreira of Brazil and Ihab Al-Salih of Iraq.