Naseem, Haris storm into knockout stage

KARACHI: A dozen cueists, including holder Muhammad Naseem Akhtar and last year’s runner-up Haris Tahir, both from Punjab, qualified for the knockout stage of the Jubilee Insurance 10th National Junior Under-21 Snooker Championship 2018 being staged at the Pakistan Sports Complex in Islamabad.

According to the details made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) on Monday, Ali Zaman Khan (Sindh), Raees Ali Usama (Pjb), Hamza Aftab (KPK), Usman Khurshid (KPK), Rabish Pervaiz (Bal), Fahad Ghaffar (Isb), Abdul Aziz (Bal) and Shahzaib Malik (Bal) also booked their slots in the last 16.

The remaining four places for the pre-quarter-finals will be decided on Tuesday (today).

A total of 34 cueists from Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Balochistan and Islamabad, having been divided into eight groups, entered the qualifying rounds and the top two cueists from each group will advance to the knockout phase.

Fierce contests have been witnessed on the first three days of the competition as even Naseem Akthar had to endure tense moments while quite a few other fancied cueists were at the receiving end in a plethora of upsets.

Results:

Usman Ahmed (Pjb) bt Atif Arshad (KPK) 3-0 (65-30, 75-8, 57-20); Muhammad Rafiq (KPK) bt Yasir Nouman (Sindh) 3-1 (1-0, 63-51, 41-59, 77-51); Sohaib Usman (Isb) bt Aqib Nawaz (Sindh) 3-0 (53-43, 58-36, 61-44); Ahsan Ramzan (Pjb) bt Altaf Hussain (Bal) 3-0 (48-11, 83-29, 64-20); Usman Khurshid (KPK) bt Syed Adil Shah (Bal) 3-1 (61-33, 28-59, 56-13, 54-26); Rabish Pervez (Bal) bt Bilal Ali Khan (Sindh) 3-0 (63-52, 46-11, 82-15); Muhammad Shahbaz (Pjb) bt Fahad Ghaffar (Isb) 3-1 (55-42, 57-49, 53-67, 52-32); Fahad Ali (KPK) bt Siddiq Khan (Sindh) 3-2 (17-51, 63-55, 19-44, 49-42, 76-31); Yasir Ahmed (Bal) bt Umer Farooq (Pjb) 3-2 (49-64, 44-49, 67-26, 59-21, 66-2); Hamza Aftab (KPK) bt Sheheryar Khan (Sindh) 3-0 (57-22, 48-22, 46-22); Muhammad Naseem Akhtar (Pjb) bt Aqib Nawaz (Sindh) 3-0 (67-36, 79-2, 78-16); Haris Tahir (Pjb) bt Ahsan Ramzan (Pjb) 3-0 (76-50, 83-17, 60-17); Ali Zaman Khan (Sindh) bt Sheikh Ahmed (KPK) 3-2 (51-41, 50-61, 61-28, 51-56, 56-7); Raees Ali Usama (Pjb) bt Mahmood Ahmed (Isb) 3-1 (66-27, 60-27, 14-54, 45-43); Usman Ahmed (Pjb) bt Sohaib Usman (Isb) 3-1 (50-13, 96-1, 35-53, 69-5); Muhammad Rafiq (KPK) bt Altaf Hussain (Bal) 3-0 (55-4, 51-44, 55-40).

Today’s fixtures:

Sheikh Muhammad Mudassir (Pjb) v Hussain Godil (Sindh); Mubashir Munsif (KPK) v Muhammad Umer Khan (Pjb); S M Imran (Sindh) v Mubashir Khan (KPK); Abdul Aziz (Bal) v Shahzaib Malik (Pjb); Usman Ahmed (Pjb) v Aqib Nawaz (Sindh); Muhammad Rafiq (KPK) v Ahsan Ramzan (Pjb); Atif Arshad (KPK) v Muhammad Naseem Akhtar ( Pjb); Yasir Nouman (Sindh) v Haris Tahir (Pjb).