National Snooker Championship: Seven make it to knock-out stage

KARACHI: As many as seven of the eight seeded cueists advanced to the knockout phase of the Jubilee Insurance 44th National Snooker Championship 2019 whose preliminary round matches concluded here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Tuesday.

Top seeded Babar Masih, second seed Muhammad Asif, third seed Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir, fourth seed Muhammad Majid Ali, fifth seed Muhammad Bilal, seventh seed Shahid Aftab and eighth seed Rambail Gul stormed in the pre-quarter-finals with sixth seed Sharjeel Mahmood being narrowly eliminated.

Muhammad Naseem Akhtar, Asjad Iqbal, Imran Shahzad, Sultan Muhammad, Ali Haider, Haris Tahir, Agha Bilawal, Muhammad Ijaz and Sohail Shahzad were the nine unseeded cueists to have forced their way into the last 16.

Reseeding for the knockout rounds was done upon the conclusion of the league matches and accordingly the draws were taken out in the presence of the qualified cueists. All the eight pre-quarterfinals, to be best of nine-frame contests, will be taking place on Wednesday (today). In the morning session, due to start at 10 am, top seeded Babar Masih will lock horns with seventh seed Shahid Aftab, Imran Shahzad will confront Asjad Iqbal, Sultan Muhammad will be pitted against Agha Bilawal and Ali Haider will be taking on Sohail Shahzad.

In the afternoon session, scheduled to commence at 1 pm, fifth seed Muhammad Bilal will be up against fourth seed Muhammad Majid Ali, eighth seed Rambail Gul will battle it out against Muhammad Ijaz, Haris Tahir will try his luck against Muhammad Asif and Muhammad Naseem Akhtar will be engaged in a duel with Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir. Babar Masih has lived up to the billing of being the top ranked cueist of the country as he finished with a maximum of six points with an incredible frame difference of 21. He qualified for the pre-quarters from the Group A in which Naseem Akhtar edged out Muhammad Shahbaz for the runner-up slot.

Defending champion Muhammad Asif was tied with four points with unseeded Mubashir Raza in the Group B but the former sneaked into the pre-quarters on the basis of better frame difference. Unseeded Asjad Iqbal had already grabbed leading position in group with five points.

Third seed Zulfiqar Qadir is also on a roll, having collected full six points with an impressive frame difference of 19. He became the Group C champion with the veteran Imran Shahzad accompanying him in the knockout rounds.

Fourth seed Majid Ali had to settle with the runner-up position in the Group D which was topped by unseeded Sultan Muhammad. Fifth seed Muhammad Bilal headed the table in the Group E with Ali Haider finishing second

Unseeded Haris Tahir became the unexpected Group F champion by routing sixth seed Sharjeel Mahmood with Agha Bilawal, another unseeded cueist, also making it to the last 16.Unseeded Muhammad Ijaz stunned seventh Shahid Aftab in the last league fixture to become the Group G champion and relegating the latter to second slot. Sohail Shehzad, also unseeded, topped the Group H in which eighth seed Rambail Gul ended runner-up

Results: Muhammad Ijaz (Pjb) bt Shahid Aftab (Pjb) 4-0 (128-0, 83-34, 58-35, 72-29); Muhammad Sajjad (Pjb) bt Abdul Sattar (Sindh) 4-1 (8-93, 73-13, 117-0, 91-35, 65-18); Ameer Hamza Khan (Isb) bt Habib Shah (Bal) 4-1 (62-15, 47-42, 63-65, 57-15, 59-54); Rambail Gul (KP) bt Aakash Rafique (KP) 4-3 (63-56, 27-87, 17-91, 57-40, 62-24, 05-56, 102-1); Abu Saim (Pjb) bt Munawwar Khaliq (Isb) 4-2 (75-64, 64-32, 4-99, 72-5, 31-82, 58-25); Sohail Shahzad (Sindh) bt Aamir Shahzad (KP) 4-0 (69-9, 67-65, 69-0, 98-9); Muhammad Bilal (Pjb) bt Ali Haider (Pjb) 4-1 (22-79, 66-37, 62-61, 64-39, 66-39); Muhammad Saleem (KP) bt Abdul Raziq (Bal) 4-2 (69-27, 70-22, 53-61, 47-61, 73-9, 101-14); Mirza Waqas Baig (Pjb) bt Farrukh Usman (Sindh) 4-3 (85-20, 80-16, 24-78, 46-57, 59-66, 74-13, 51-18); Haris Tahir (Pjb) bt Sharjeel Mahmood (KP) 4-1 (84-13, 59-61, 64-9, 53-48, 63-27); Shafiullah (KP) bt Abdul Majid (Sindh) 4-1 (89-0, 47-52, 79-18, 91-0, 56-38); Ahsan Javaid (Pjb) bt Saeed Khan (Bal) 4-0 (61-25, 66-24, 114-0, 77-12); Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir (Sindh) bt Shaikh Mudassir (Pjb) 4-1 (50-21, 106-26, 64-56, 31-65, 76-45); Aamir Tariq (Pjb) bt Musaddiq Mahmood (Isb) 4-0 (61-20, 91-25, 71-0, 67-17); Bahadur Khan (Bal) bt Fawad Khan (KP) 4-2 (45-52, 64-36, 55-35, 61-70, 76-18, 40-12); Ahsan Ramzan (Pjb) bt Muhammad Majid Ali (Pjb) 4-2 (89-21, 77-21, 5-67, 60-72, 71-66, 52-30); Sultan Muhammad (Sindh) bt Saif Ali Khan (Bal) 4-1 (51-43, 57-24, 71-0, 36-76, 66-0); Imran Qamar (Pjb) bt Abdul Jalil (KP) 4-0 (46-33, 57-23, 70-13, 65-5); Babar Masih (Pjb) bt Muhammad Mudassir (Isb) 4-0 (69-24, 65-55, 112-1, 98-24); Muhammad Naseem Akhtar (Pjb) bt Fazal Umar Butt (Sindh) 4-0 (101-3, 63-39, 98-0, 55-15); Muhammad Asif (Pjb) bt Hamza Ilyas (Pjb) 4-1 (90-2, 85-0, 9-77, 109-0, 55-47). As many as 20 century breaks were compiled during the preliminary round matches.