U-16 champion Hamza set to make debut: National Snooker begins today

KARACHI: The reigning Under-16 champion Muhammad Hamza Ilyas will be making his debut in the Jubilee Insurance 44th National Snooker Championship 2019 which cues off here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Wednesday (today).

According to the details made available to ‘The News’ by the Tournament Director, Naved Kapadia, here on Tuesday evening there were no dropouts yet among the record number of 56 participants for the 11-day event. “We have not received any communication yet from any of our affiliated units about any cueists’ withdrawal. So the draws for the championship, released on Monday, remain unchanged for the time being,” he confirmed. The teenaged Hamza Ilyas, hailing from Lahore, is all set to enter the mainstream circuit after having emerged triumphant in inaugural National Under-16 Championship a few months ago.

Ahsan Ramzan, another promising teenager from Lahore, will also be making his debut in the National Championship, having qualified from the Punjab Cup. He was the losing semifinalist in the National Under-18 Championship as well as the National Under-21 Championship earlier this year.

Shaikh Mudasshir, the reigning Under-18 champion belonging to Rawalpindi, and Ali Haider, who captured the National Under-21 title, coming from Gujranwala, will be reappearing in the Nationals. The PBSA has awarded wild card entries to a couple of promising youngsters, Mubashir Raza and M Shahbaz, to let them get more exposure of competitive snooker at national level. The 56 participants will be divided equally in eight groups for the preliminary rounds at the end of which the top two cueists from each group will be advancing to the knockout phase, beginning from pre-quarter-finals. Both the semifinals as well as final will be telecast live by Geo Super.

Babar Masih from Punjab is the top seed for the event while defending champion M Asif, also from Punjab, is the second seed. Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir, the only local cueist in the top eight, is seeded third. Fourth seed M Majid Ali and fifth seed M Bilal hail from Punjab while sixth seed Sharjeel Mahmood is from Khyber Pakthunkhwa.

Seventh seed Shahid Aftab, a former champion, comes from Punjab while eighth seed Rambail Gul belongs to Khyber Pakthunkhwa.

The Group A comprises of top seed Babar Masih (Punjab), M Mudassir (Islamabad), Rabish Pervez (Balochistan), Farhan Khan (Khyber Pakthunkhwa), Fazal Umar Butt (Sindh), M Naseem Akhtar (Punjab) and M Shahbaz (Punjab) while the Group B contains second seed and defending champion M Asif (Punjab), Hamza Ilyas (Punjab), Sirbuland Khan (Khyber Pakthunkhwa), Asjad Iqbal (Punjab), Rizwan Hashmi (Sindh), Samiullah (Balochistan) and Mubashir Raza (Punjab).

The Group C features third seed Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir (Sindh), Shaikh M Mudssir (Punjab), Aamir Tariq (Punjab), Musaddiq Mehmood (Islamabad), Bahadur Khan (Balochistan), Fawad Khan (Khyber Pakthunkhwa) and Imran Shahzad (Punjab) while the Group D is composed of fourth seed M Majid Ali (Punjab), Ahsan Ramzan (Punjab), Sultan Muhammad (Sindh), Saif Ali Khan (Balochistan), Abdul Jalil (Khyber Pakthunkhwa), Imran Qamar (Punjab) and Ali Raza (Sindh).

The Group E has the presence of fifth seed Muhammad Bilal (Punjab), Ali Haider (Punjab), Abdul Raziqm (Balochistan), M Saleem (Khyber Pakthunkhwa), Mirza Waqas Baig (Punjab), Farukh Usman (Sindh) and Rashid Aziz (Punjab) while the Group F constitutes of sixth seed Sharjeel Mehmood (Khyber Pakthunkhwa), Haris Tahir (Punjab), Shafiullah (Khyber Pakthunkhwa), Abdul Majid (Sindh), Saeed Khan (Balochistan), Ahsan Javaid (Punjab) and Danish Haroon (Sindh).

Seventh seed Shahid Aftab (Punjab) leads the pack in the Group G also having M Ijaz (Punjab), Abdul Sattar (Sindh), M Sajjad (Punjab), Ameer Hamza Khan (Islamabad), Habib Shah (Balochistan), Aamir Sohail (Khyber Pakthunkhwa) while the Group H has Rambail Gul (Khyber Pakthunkhwa), Aakash Rafique (Khyber Pakthunkhwa), Abu Saim (Punjab), Munawar Khaliq (Islamabad), Sohail Shahzad (Sindh), Aamir Shahzad (Khyber Pakthunkhwa) and Abdul Hameed (Balochistan).