2nd National Masters (Over-40) Snooker C’ship: Five Punjab, three Sindh cueists cruise into quarters

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, Muhammad Atif Baig, Imran Shahzad, Fawad Hussain and Shahzad Shafiq made it to quarter-finals alongwith the Sindh trio of Khurram Hussain Agha, Naveen Kumar Perwani and Maisam Zaidi. A total of 32 cueists, divided equally in eight groups, had the preliminary rounds of the championship at the end which the top two cueists from each group progressed to the pre-quarters.

All the four quarter-finals will be held simultaneously in the morning session, starting at 10 am on Wednesday (today), while both the semifinals will be played later in the day at 2 pm. 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 Agha, who had been the top ranked cueist of the country for a number of years. Maisam Zaidi, however, prevailed over Muhammad Yousuf, a former world champion, in the all-Sindh pre-quarter-final tie dominated by the younger of two contestants.

Defending champion Imran Shahzad from Punjab entered the quarter-finals with another resounding win as did Naveen Perwani, 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); Muhammad 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 (KPK) 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).

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