National Snooker Championship 2019: Unseeded Sohail overpowers Rambail

KARACHI: Unseeded Sohail Shahzad prevailed over eighth seed Rambail Gul as the league matches of the Jubilee Insurance National Snooker Championship continued for the third day running here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Friday.

Top seed Babar Masih, third seed Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir, fourth seed Majid Ali, fifth seed Muhammad Bilal and seventh seed Shahid Aftab continued their unbeaten run to stay in comfortable position to qualify for the pre-quarter-finals.

The other three seeds, Muhammad Asif, Sharjeel Mahmood and Rambail Gul, after suffering early setbacks, were left to work harder in their remaining matches to remain afloat in the competitions.

Among the unseeded lot, Asjad Iqbal, hailing from Punjab, extended his brilliant run. Having chalked up the highest break of the competition so far (139) the other day, he gave another powerful performance, blanking Ahmed Shah of Balochistan in straight frames.

Unseeded Ahsan Javaid, coming from Punjab, showed great stamina and skill by registering his second successive victory after seven-frame battles. Having staged a magnificent recovery after being 1-3 down against Sharjeel Mahmood of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) the other day, he overcame the dangerous Abdul Majid of Sindh after yet another duel going to the full distance of seven frames.

The unseeded duo of Muhammad Nasim Akhtar and Abdul Sattar also shared the limelight on the third day of league matches. While Naseem, the former Under-18 champion, proved too good for Farhan Khan, whipping him in straight frames.

Abdul Sattar, one of the most accomplished local cueists, showed flashes of brilliance, while compiling a superlative break of 122 during his straight-frame victory over Aamir Sohail.

With as many as 56 cueists, divided in eight groups, the preliminary round matches will continue for four more days at the end of which the top two cueists from each group will be proceeding to the knockout stage of the championship.

Results:

Sohail Shahzad (Sindh) bt Rambail Gul (KP) 4-2 (82-10, 76-28, 3-77, 26-78, 78-33, 82-51); Abu Saim (Pjb) bt Abdul Hameed (Bal) 4-1 (70-27, 77-32, 9-88, 102-9, 60-37); Aamir Shahzad (KP) bt Munawar Khaliq (Isb) 4-1 (65-13, 59-42, 61-44, 20-73, 87-16); Shahid Aftab (Pjb) bt Ameer Hamza Khan (Isb) 4-0 (63-35, 59-11, 108-0, 78-56); Abdul Sattar (Sindh) bt Aamir Sohail (KP) 4-0 (122-0, 75-5, 55-33, 53-21); Muhammad Sajjad (Pjb) bt Habib Shah (Bal) 4-0 (60-40, 58-23, 66-8, 79-10); Sharjeel Mahmood (KP) bt Saeed Khan (Bal) 4-2 (45-78, 60-56, 53-75, 67-63, 70-18, 56-40); Agha Bilawal (Sindh) bt Shafiullah (KP) 4-3 (58-69, 67-38, 82-40, 32-62, 79-39, 49-69, 84-0); Ahsan Javaid (Pjb) bt Abdul Majid (Sindh) 4-3 (93-0, 84-37, 29-61, 72-31, 6-102, 52-66, 64-1); Muhammad Bilal (Pjb) bt Mirza Waqas Baig (Pjb) 4-1 (107-0, 70-14, 6-72, 63-23, 67-57); Rashid Aziz (Pjb) bt Abdul Raziq (Bal) 4-2 (63-26, 29-83, 60-19, 65-11, 22-91, 70-8); Farrukh Usman (Sindh) bt Muhammad Saleem (KP) 4-0 (61-22, 76-16, 60-5, 69-40); Imran Qamar (Pjb) bt Saif Ali Khan (Bal) 4-0 (77-26, 54-31, 56-26, 73-24); Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir (Sindh) bt Bahadur Khan (Bal) 4-0 (54-35, 92-8, 60-58, 52-26); Musaddiq Mahmood (Isb) bt Fawad Khan (KP) 4-1 (61-52, 49-59, 56-24, 49-38, 50-19); Asjad Iqbal (Pjb) bt Ahmed Shah (Bal) 4-0 (70-30, 84-35, 88-6, 75-28); Babar Masih (Pjb) bt Fazal Umar Butt (Sindh) 4-0 (72-25, 83-21, 88-32, 87-9); Naseem Akhtar (Pjb) bt Farhan Khan (KP) 4-0 (63-30, 71-47, 55-14, 73-40).