Asif, Imran suffer defeats in IBSF World Snooker

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 made available 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 frame of 84 in the opening frame, succeeded in taming Asif with the help of his break-building abilities.

He followed it up a sensational break of 126 in the fourth frame and finished it off with another sizzling break of 98 in the ninth frame. Asif, who had earlier clinched the title six years ago, had stayed in the hunt by pocketing successive frames to make it 3-4, fought hard in the eighth frame which he lost narrowly and it was all over for him as far as this tournament was concerned when he was rolled over in the next frame.

Pakistan’s other two cueists, Muhammad Bilal and Babar Masih, had also reached the knockout phase of the Open event but neither of them could proceed beyond pre-quarter-finals. Chang Bingyu of China was also responsible for bringing 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. Meanwhile Suckakree Poomjang of Thailand) sent Imran Shahzad 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.