Mudassir, Umer enter National U-18 Snooker final

KARACHI: Last year’s runner-up Shaikh Muhammad Mudassir and last year’s semifinalist Muhammad Umer Khan, both of them from Punjab, cruised into the final of the Jubilee Insurance 3rd National Junior U-18 Snooker Championship 2018 as they overwhelmed their respective rivals in the semifinal at the Pakistan Sports Complex in Islamabad on Wednesday.

According to the details of the semifinals made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), Shaikh Muddasir outclassed Shahzaib Malik, also from Punjab, 4-1 with the frame scores of 65-41, 61-12, 50-38, 88-21, 65-8 while Umer Khan outsmarted Hamza Ilyas of Khyber Pakhtunkwa (KPK) 4-2 with the scores of 70-28, 58-23, 15-63, 48-58, 73-1, 78-14.

The all-Punjab final between Shaikh Muddasir and Umer Khan will be getting underway at 10 am on Thursday (today). In the first semifinal, Shaikh Mudassir came up with awesome display to upstage Shahzaib Malik. He chalked up big breaks of 59 and 65 in successive frames to bamboozle his opponent. The break of 65 was the highest in the tournament thus far, surpassing Ahsan Ramzan’s 60 registered in the pre-quarter finals. Umer Khan was on top of his game while eliminating the dangerous 13-year-old Hamza Ilyas in the other semifinal which was comparatively closer than the first one. The quarter-finals were contested earlier in the day in which Punjab’s Shahzaib Malik whipped Muhammad Rafay of Sindh in straight frames with the scores of 70-32, 88-40, 60-9, 99-15 while Shaikh Muddasir, also from Punjab, meted out similar treatment to the high-flying Kamran Albert Masih of KPK with the frame scores being 61-23, 59-17, 59-9, 73-21.

The all-Punjab quarter-final encounter between Umer Khan and Ahsan Ramzan went to the full distance of seven frames with the former winning 4-3 with the scores of 44-58, 70-39, 56-54, 69-8, 5-73, 54-63, 58-48. Umer Khan fired as many as three breaks of 51 in the absorbing duel which went to the wire. Ahsan Ramzan fought bravely until the end but even his break of 55, the highest of the game, was unable to save him.

The match between Hamza Ilyas of KPK and Sheharyar Abbas of Punjab was also stretched to full seven frames with the former sneaking 4-3 win with the scores of 8-63, 27-57, 70-77, 66-26, 57-22, 85-15, 51-43.