National Snooker: Ali Haider upsets high-flying Naseem

KARACHI: Unsung Ali Haider stunned the high-flying Muhammad Naseem Akhtar, unseeded Muhammad Ahsan Javaid shocked fourth seed Shahid Aftab while wild card entrant, Muhammad Majid Ali, outgunned Agha Bilal in the pre-quarter-finals of the Jubilee Insurance 43rd National Snooker Championship 2018 here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Sunday.

In the other pre-quarters, second seed Muhammad Asif overpowered top seeded Asjad Iqbal, third seed Muhammad Bilal edged out Qadeer Abbas, sixth seed Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir blanked out Aakash Rafique, eighth seed Babar Masih outwitted Sohail Shahzad and Sultan Muhammad overcame Abdul Sattar.

All the four quarter-finals are scheduled to get underway simultaneously at 10 am on Monday (today) while both the semifinals, to be televised live on Geo Super, will be played on Tuesday (tomorrow) and the final will be taking place on Wednesday.

In the best of nine-frame quarter-finals, Muhammad Bilal (Pjb) will take on Muhammad Ahsan Javaid (Pjb), Ali Haider (Pjb) will confront Babar Masih (Pjb), Muhammad Asif (Pjb) will tackle Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir (Sindh) and Muhammad Majid Ali (Pjb) will lock horns with Sultan Muhammad (Sindh).

Ali Haider caused the biggest upset on the first day of knockout phase on Sunday when he routed Naseem Akhtar, hailed as the most promising young cueist of the country, 5-3 with the frame scores of 48-52, 78-21, 75-40, 85-0, 69-12, 15-60, 51-62, 56-55.

Playing brilliantly, Ali Haider exceeded expectations by chalking up superb breaks of 57, 85 and 57 in successive frames to stun the reigning world Under-18 champion before eventually throwing him out of the tournament.

Unseeded Muhammad Ahsan Javaid caused another upset by toppling fourth seed and former national champion, Shahid Aftab, 5-2 with the frame 12-69, 36-77, 81-15, 61-44, 73-23, 77-42, 75-0, signing off with a classy break of 75.

Second seed Muhammad Asif, a former world champion, reproduced his top form to floor top seeded Asjad Iqbal 5-3 with the scores of 126-1, 65-46, 66-13, 58-61, 0-84, 7-61, 91-8, 80-29. Starting with a break of 115 in the opening frame he also registered breaks of 58, 51, 90 and 50 to outshine his higher ranked opponent.

Third seed Muhammad Bilal had to bring all his expertise into play to down the dangerous Qadeer Abbas 5-4 with the scores of 59-34, 73-40, 57-60, 49-71, 85-13, 18-65, 51-50, 42-81, 121-7.

After hours of tense battle the best of nine frame encounter was locked at four-all when both the cueists entered the decisive ninth frame. It needed a sensational break of 103 from the seeded cueist to seal the fate of the match in his favour.

Sixth seed Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir faced no problems whatsoever in hammering Aakash Rafique as he won the one-sided game 5-0 with the scores of 81-16, 93-49, 73-10, 83-8, 82-37, having compiled a break of 72 in the fourth frame.

Eighth seed Babar Masih remained in control of the proceeding while whipping the enigmatic Sohail Shahzad 5-2 with the scores of 69-30, 76-35, 58-66, 58-68, 101-21, 97-29, 60-12, registering a break of 89 in the sixth frame.

Wild card entrant Muhammad Majid Ali played intelligently to defeat Agha Bilawal 5-3 with the frame scores 39-77, 71-61, 32-67, 72-57, 78-24, 57-48, 36-55, 62-36 while Sultan Muhammad outsmarted Abdul Sattar 5-3 with the scores of 36-50, 06-62, 70-39, 61-37, 70-20, 32-92, 63-48, 68-56.