Shahbaz, Naseem meet in snooker U21 final today

KARACHI: Holder Naseem Akhtar overwhelmed last year’s runner-up Haris Tahir in the semi-finals of the Jubilee Insurance National Junior Under-21 Snooker Championship 2018 at the PSB Billiards & Snooker Hall in Islamabad on Thursday.

According to the details made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), Naseem’s opponent in the all-Punjab final would be Muhammad Shahbaz who edged out Usman Ahmed in the other semi-final.

The highlight of the day was yet another scintillating performance by the IBSF World Junior Under-18 champion Naseem, who registered the highest break of 111 in the quarter-final against Ali Zaman Khan of Sindh besides chalking up three half century breaks of 93, 72 and 52 in the semi-final.

The defending champion thrashed Haris by 5-2 but the pre-final between Shahbaz and Usman was extended to four hours as it went to the full distance of nine frames. All the four semi-finalists were from Punjab.

Sindh Cup champion Ali Zaman ran out of steam as did Umer Khan, who became the National Junior Under-18 champion at the same venue the other week. A total of 34 cueists from Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Balochistan and Islamabad, divided in eight groups, had entered the competition.

The final will start at 10 am on Friday (today). The Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination, Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada, will be the chief guest on the occasion.PBSA President Munawwar Hussain Sheikh and Co-Chairman Alamgir Anwar Shaikh have reached Islamabad from Karachi to witness the final match.

The winner will earn the honour to represent Pakistan in the Asian Under-21 Snooker Championship 2018 in Myanmar as well as the IBSF World U-21 Snooker Championship 2018 in China.

Quarter-finals: Usman Ahmed (Pjb) bt Shaikh Mudassir (Pjb) 4-1 (63-58, 67-21, 59-9, 57-73, 68-10); Muhammad Shahbaz (Pjb) bt Raees Ali Usama (Pjb) 4-3 (49-51, 57-18, 8-102, 82-14, 64-2, 12-45, 62-52); Naseem Akhtar (Pjb) bt Ali Zaman Khan (Sindh) 4-0 (58-17, 51-25, 115-8, 65-13); Haris Tahir (Pjb) bt Umar Khan (Pjb) 4-3 (19-63, 33-70, 72-64, 77-49, 73-60, 33-61, 78-53).

Semifinals: Muhammad Shahbaz (Pjb) bt Usman Ahmed (Pjb) 5-4 (60-23, 60-32, 60-16, 50-8, 22-55, 28-68, 12-58, 14-71, 51-16); Naseem Akhtar (Pjb) bt Haris Tahir (Pjb) 5-2 (72-17, 93-2, 5-80, 62-41, 66-39, 42-66, 57-45).