National Masters Snooker: Three cueists from Sindh reach quarter-finals

KARACHI: Five cueists from Punjab and three from Sindh stormed into the quarter-finals of the Jubilee Insurance 2nd National Masters (Over-40) Snooker Championship 2018 after overpowering their respective rivals in the pre-quarter-finals at the Champions Snooker Academy in Lahore on Tuesday.

According to the details made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), the Punjab quintet of Muhammad Nadeem, Atif Baig, Imran Shahzad, Fawad Hussain and Shahzad Shafiq made it to the quarter-finals alongwith the Sindh trio of Khurram Hussain Agha, Naveen Kumar Perwani and Maisam Zaidi.

All the four quarter-finals will start at 10am on Wednesday (today) and both the semi-finals will be played later in the day at 2pm. The final will be contested on Thursday (tomorrow).

Mujtahid Ali Shah and Saeed Ahmed, the lone qualifiers in the knockout phase from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, respectively, were blown away in the pre-quarter-finals.

Top seed Shahzad Butt of Punjab was also eliminated at the first knockout hurdle as he was undone by the vastly experienced Khurram, who remained the top-ranked cueist of the country for a number of years.

Maisam prevailed over Muhammad Yousuf, a former world champion, in the all-Sindh pre-quarter-final. Defending champion Imran Shahzad from Punjab entered the quarter-finals with another resounding win as did Naveen, another fancied cueist from Sindh.

Results: Maisam Zadi (Sindh) bt Muhammad Yousuf (Sindh) 4-1 (52-14, 66-54, 59-60, 58-30, 55-45); Muhammad Nadeem (Pjb) bt Saeed Ahmed (Bal) 4-2 (59-15, 61-18, 29-55, 35-43, 58-22, 56-37); Atif Baig (Pjb) bt Faisal Rogatia (Sindh) 4-3 (27-56, 60-7, 54-75, 27-44, 59-54, 55-1, 57-28); Imran Shahzad (Pjb) bt Khwaja Rizwan (Pjb) 4-1 (107-6, 78-16, 76-30, 55-77, 66-22), Khurram Agha (Sindh) bt Shahzad Butt (Pjb) 4-2 (70-45, 43-76, 43-38, 82-45, 50-61, 69-21); Naveen Perwani (Sindh) bt Muhammad Shahid (Pjb) 4-2 (48-50, 67-18, 77-59, 30-50, 56-14, 55-18); Fawad Hussain (Pjb) bt Mujtahid Ali Shah (KP) 4-2 (65-3, 21-76, 77-53, 45-26, 39-77, 70-30); Shahzad Shafiq (Pjb) bt Qadeer Butt (Pjb) 4-0 (55-8, 57-17, 52-51, 50-2).

Quarter-finals: Maisam Zaidi (Sindh) v Muhammad Nadeem (Pjb); Atif Baig (Pjb) v Imran Shahzad (Pjb); Khurram Agha (Sindh) v Naveen Perwani (Sindh); Fawad Hussain (Pjb) v Shahzad Shafiq (Pjb).