Bilal falls in ACBS-IBSF 10-Red Snooker semis

KARACHI: Muhammad Bilal’s dream of winning successive titles was shattered in the semi-finals of the second stage of the ACBS-IBSF Asian Tour 10-Red Snooker Tournament in Jinan, China.

Pakistan’s Bilal, however, had the consolation of collecting the bronze medal in the four-day event. According to the information made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) here on Tuesday, Bilal was outgunned by India’s Pankaj Advani, who won the semi-final 5-1 with the frame scores of 93-0, 5-56, 62-1, 42-34, 37-23, 85-4.

Advani, a former IBSF world champion, controlled the game from the outset and never allowed Bilal to stage a recovery. He fired a break of 93 in the opening frame and sealed the fate of the match with a break of 84 in the sixth frame.

He also chalked up breaks of 58 and 40 in the third and fourth frames, respectively. Advani will take on Ju Reti of China in the final, to be held on Wednesday (today). The local cueist overwhelmed his compatriot Huang Zhong 5-1 in the other semi-final with the frame scores of 96-0, 68-0, 46-2, 95-0, 0-69, 65-0.

Earlier in the day, Bilal downed Ma Chunmao of China 5-2 in the quarter-finals with the scores of 28-55, 94-0, 9-75(75), 53-52, 55-0, 51-6, 61-0.Ma Chunmao had brought about the demise of Pakistan’s Haris Tahir, whipping him 5-1 in the fast paced quarter-finals with the frame scores of 63-11, 39-28, 0-82, 69-0, 62-0, 57-50.

Pakistan’s top ranked cueist Babar Masih had failed to reach the knockout stage of the competition, contested by 24 cueists. The three Pakistani cueists had qualified for the event on the basis of their performances in the ACBS events of 2018.