Pak cueists out of World Snooker C’ships

KARACHI: Pakistan’s campaign in the IBSF World Snooker Championships 2018 being staged in Yangon, Myanmar, came to an end on Monday with the defeats of Muhammad Asif and Imran Shahzad in their respective events.

According to the information provided by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) here on Monday, Asif, a former world champion, was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Open Championship, while Imran was edged out in the pre-quarter-finals of the Masters Championship.

Asif’s dream of annexing the world crown for the second time was shattered by Chang Bingyu of China, who overpowered him 6-3 in the quarter-finals with the scores of 97-27, 75-53, 43-71, 126-14, 64-34, 13-66, 27-97, 62-50, 98-0.

The Chinese, who began with a break of 84 in the opening frame, succeeded in taming Asif owing to his break-building abilities. He followed it up with a sensational break of 126 in the fourth frame and finished it off with another sizzling break of 98 in the ninth frame.

Pakistan’s other two cueists, Muhammad Bilal and Babar Masih, had also reached the knockout phase of the Open event, but neither was able to proceed beyond pre-quarter-finals.Chang Bingyu of China brought about the exit of Bilal, whom he defeated 5-2 in the pre-quarters with the scores of 34-59, 83-17, 70-26, 61-27, 38-66, 72-58, 57-7.

Andrew Pagett of Wales edged out Babar 5-4 in the round of 32 with the frame scores of 24-67, 73-6, 123-0, 89-0, 19-68, 27-60, 108-0, 45-65, 61-39.Suckakree Poomjang of Thailand sent Imran packing in the Masters Championship by edging him out 4-3 in the quarter-finals with the frame scores of 91-34, 70-15, 68-46, 0-80, 17-79, 50-70, 65-8.