Naseem, Haris walk leisurely into U21 Snooker quarters

KARACHI: Holder Naseem Akhtar and last year’s runner-up Haris Tahir, both from Punjab, walked leisurely into the quarter-finals of Jubilee Insurance 10th National Junior Under-21 Snooker Championship 2018 whose pre-quarter-finals were contested at the PSB Billiards & Snooker Hall in Islamabad on Wednesday.

According to the details made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), as many as seven cueists from Punjab advanced to the quarter-finals. Ali Zaman Khan of Sindh is the eighth quarter-finalist.

A total of 34 cueists from Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Balouchistan and Islamabad, divided in eight groups, had entered qualifying rounds with the top two cueists from each group reaching the pre-quarter-finals.

The quarter-finals and the semi-finals will be played on Thursday (today) and the final on Friday (tomorrow). The quarter-finals start simultaneously at 10am. The semifinals begin at 2pm.

The closest pre-quarter-final tie took place between the Punjab duo of Raees Ali Usama and Ahsan Ramzan, which was decided at the black ball in the decisive seventh frame.The other highlights of the pre-quarters were the big breaks registered by Naseem Akhtar (75) against Fahad Ghaffar of Islamabad, Ali Zaman Khan of Sindh (58) against Usman Khurshid (KP) and Haris Tahir of Punjab (52) against Hamza Aftab (KP).

Results: Shaikh Mudassir (Pjb) bt Abdul Aziz (Bal) 4-2 (65-24, 49-28, 39-59, 57-31, 36-69, 76-15); Usman Ahmed (Pjb) bt Rabish Pervaiz (Bal) 4-2 (53-62, 67-40, 51-36, 53-40, 14-69, 66-50); Muhammad Shahbaz (Pjb) bt Umer Farooq (Pjb) 4-3 (39-52, 64-18, 57-47, 52-31, 29-62, 20-56, 60-41); Raees Ali Usama (Pjb) bt Ahsan Ramzan (Pjb) 4-3 (29-74, 22-65, 54-43, 23-70, 74-48, 64-16, 57-52); Naseem Akhtar (Pjb) bt Fahad Ghaffar (Isb) 4-1 (70-4, 75-8, 11-52, 63-43, 69-10); Ali Zaman Khan (Sindh) bt Usman Khurshid (KP) 4-0 (66-6, 56-8, 90-14, 50-0); Umar Khan (Pjb) bt Shahzaib Malik (Pjb) 4-1 (80-28, 63-25, 58-26, 50-80, 67-19); Haris Tahir (Pjb) bt Hamza Aftab (KP) 4-0 (74-29, 74-25, 74-19, 74-7).

Quarter-finals: Shaikh Mudassir (Pjb) v Usman Ahmed (Pjb); Muhammad Shahbaz (Pjb) v Raees Ali Usama (Pjb); Naseem Akhtar (Pjb) v Ali Zaman Khan (Sindh); Umar Khan (Pjb) v Haris Tahir (Pjb).