Asif, Bilal, Babar cruise into semis

KARACHI: The seeded trio of Muhammad Asif, Muhammad Bilal and Babar Masih outwitted their respective rivals confidently and gracefully but the wild card entrant Majid Ali and unseeded Sultan Muhammad tested the patience of all concerned in the quarter-finals of the National Snooker Championship here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Monday.

Majid and Sultan made a mockery of the sustained efforts of the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) to popularise the sport by engaging into a practice which was legitimate but against the spirit of the game. They were guilty of dragging their best-of-nine-frame encounter to more than six hours, while Asif had wrapped up his quarter-final in a matter of 70 minutes.

With the semi-finals and the final to be televised live on Geo Super, it could be a disaster of sorts if any of these three games is played at the same pace as the one between Majid and Sultan in the quarter-finals.

Both the best-of-11-frame semi-finals are due to take place on Tuesday (today). In the first semi-final, scheduled to start at 10 am, Bilal will be up against Babar. It will be followed by the semi-final between Asif and Majid.

Second seed Asif, a former world champion, was the first to enter the semi-finals as he needed just over an hour to topple Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir in straight frames with the scores of 125-0, 108-1, 72-24, 72-30, 73-49.

The 35-year-old Asif, hailing from Faisalabad, didn’t look back after starting with a bang. He began with a lightening quick break of 100 in the opening frame and followed it up with one of 90 in the very next frame. Breaks of 57 and 56 in successive frames didn’t allow his 31-year-old opponent from Karachi to get off the mark.

Third seed Bilal, 32, had to bring all his expertise into play to down the 26-year-old Ahsan Javaid from Sialkot 5-3 with the frame scores of 68-30, 54-70, 59-60, 99-1(99), 09-81, 64-41, 57-53, 64-0.Bilal, acclaimed as one of the best potters of the country, expressed his frustration rather loudly at missing his targets occasionally but he was at his best in the third frame while compiling a superb break of 99.

Eighth seed Babar, 31, was also required to play his top game to overpower 19-year-old Ali Haider from Gujranwala. He also won the match 5-3 with the frame scores of 66-51, 69-21, 25-59, 8-66, 69-27, 61-32, 10-47, 70-17.

The battle between the 24-year-old Majid, belonging to Samundari, and the 37-year-old Sultan, a resident of Karachi, went to the full distance of nine frames with the former winning it finally 5-4 with the scores of 62-53, 32-108, 73-28, 60-0, 28-71, 54-61, 68-35, 20-79, 70-61.Both the cueists have had the reputation of slowing down the game but they seemed to have overdone it in their attempt for survival which was resented by those present on the occasion.