National Masters Snooker Championship: Yousuf outclasses rival with century break

KARACHI: Muhammad Yousuf, a former world champion, showed his master class while registering the first century break of the Jubilee Insurance 2nd National Masters (Over-40) Snooker Championship 2018 which cued off at the Champions Snooker Academy in Lahore on Saturday.

According to the details made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), there were as many as three upsets on the opening day as Khurram Hussain Agha, Noman Awan and Saeed Bangulzai, the provincial champions of Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan respectively were overpowered by their rivals.

The highlight of the day, however, was the classy break of 110 by Yousuf, the only Pakistani to have annexed the world open title as well as the world masters title, during his massive win over Arshad Ali Qureshi of Islamabad in straight frames.

Defending champion Imran Shahzad of Punjab began his campaign by toppling the Sindh champion and third seed Khurram Agha of Sindh 3-1, while Faisal Rogatia, an unseeded cueist from Sindh, blew the whistle on third seed Noman Awan and Muhammad Shahid from Punjab outclassed fourth seed Saeed Bangulzai from Balochistan.

A total of 32 cueists, having been divided equally in eight groups, are participating in the preliminary rounds of the championship being organised by the PBSA with the collaboration of Jubilee Insurance Limited. At the end of the league matches, top two seeds from each group will advance to the knockout phase starting with pre-quarter-finals.

Results: Shahzad Butt (Pjb) bt Mukhtar Khan (Sindh) 3-1 (56-29, 12-50, 64-54, 66-21); Imran Shahzad (Pjb) bt Khurram Agha (Sindh) 3-1 (29-63, 62-54, 65-29, 57-16); Faisal Rogatia (Sindh) bt Noman Awan (Pjb) 3-1 (61-48, 63-33, 35-55, 68-31); Muhammad Shahid (Pjb) bt Saeed Bangulzai (Bal) 3-0 (73-9, 68-33, 99-51); Muhammad Nadeem (Pjb) bt Ahmed Naqvi (Ibd) 3-0 (55-26, 61-54, 56-7); Naveen Perwani (Sindh) bt Khawaja Rizwan (Pjb) 3-2 (41-58, 76-08(71), 31-65, 63-41, 66-36); Fawad Hussain (Pjb) bt Rashid Mahmood (KPK) 3-0 (65-10, 62-15, 54-44); Mujtahid Ali Shah (KPK) bt Sunny Shahani (Sindh) 3-1 (76-7, 50-44, 41-61, 60-32); Saeed Ahmed (Bal) bt Zafar Iqbal (KPK) 3-1 (71-25, 58-59, 62-11, 50-4); Saeed-ur-Rahman (KPK) bt Noor Hussain (Bal) 3-0 (58-9, 58-38, 70-9); Shahid Shafiq (Pjb) bt Manzoor Ahmed (Bal) 3-0 (96-1 70-24, 67-20); Maisam Zadi (Sindh) bt Amanullah (KPK) 3-0 (59-10, 55-32, 46-22); Muhammad Yousuf (Sindh) bt Arshad Ali Qureshi (Ibd) 3-0 (69-35, 89-34, 116-16); Muhammad Atif Baig (Pjb) bt Muhammad Yousuf Jr (Bal) 3-0 (85-24, 56-8, 61-24); Qadeer Butt (Pjb) bt Shadab Baig (Sindh) 3-1 (60-34, 57-29, 42-71, 84-59); Irfan Kareem (KPK) bt Haji Saqib (Bal) 3-0 (78-34, 59-32, 57-48).