Unseeded Ijaz knocks Rambail out of National Snooker

KARACHI: Unseeded Muhammad Ijaz knocked down eighth seed Rambail Gul in the pre-quarter finals of the Jubilee Insurance National Snooker Championship here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Wednesday.

Fourth seed Majid Ali and seventh seed Shahid Aftab were also eliminated in the pre-quarters as they succumbed to fifth seed Muhammad Bilal and top seeded Babar Masih, respectively. Second seed Muhammad Asif and third seed Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir forced their way into the quarter-finals along with the unseeded trio of Asjad Iqbal, Ali Haider and Agha Bilawal.

All the four quarter-finals, to be best-of-9-frame encounters, will be played simultaneously in the morning session, due to start at 10am, on Thursday (today). Top seeded Babar Masih will take on unseeded Asjad Iqbal; second seed and defending champion Muhammad Asif will tackle third seed Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir; fifth seed Muhammad Bilal will confront unseeded Muhammad Ijaz; and Agha Bilawal will be up against Ali Haider in a battle of unseeded cueists.

Unseeded Muhammad Ijaz toppled eighth seed Rambail Gul 5-2 with the frame scores of 78-34, 90-5, 52-73, 36-87, 68-1, 118-16, 59-16. He followed up a break of 59 in the second frame with an even better one of 118 in the sixth frame.

Babar Masih, the highest ranked cueist of the country, showed his master class by whipping seventh seed Shahid Aftab, who had won the national title in 2011, 5-1 with the frame scores of 93-48, 88-38, 24-61, 139-0, 87-20, 69-0.

Having maintained his supremacy in the preliminary rounds all along, he began the knockout phase with a blast. He fired superb breaks of 67 and 87 in the second and fifth frames, respectively. He was at his best during the fourth frame when he compiled a classy break of 124 .

Second seed Muhammad Asif, who was extremely fortunate to have found a place in the knockout rounds after indifferent form in the earlier matches, brought all his experience into play to edge out the dangerous Haris Tahir 5-3 with the frame scores of 53-70, 68-38, 29-85, 68-10, 71-0, 84-23, 88-12. The former world champion chalked up breaks of 50, 62 and 66 to win the closely fought game.

Third seed Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir was also engaged in a tense duel with unseeded Naseem Akhtar, a former World Under-18 champion, before downing him 5-3 with the frame scores of 27-63, 80-32, 62-48, 23-89, 60-59, 134-0, 63-71, 106-0. His fantastic breaks of 66, 134 and 71 proved decisive in settling the issue.

Fifth seed Muhammad Bilal, rather surprisingly, faced no problems whatsoever in hammering fourth seed Majid Ali 5-1 with the scores of 75-64, 66-55, 124-15, 7-109, 60-26, 70-13.

Bilal constructed a break of 111 in the third frame and of 62 in the sixth frame. Majid’s only moment of glory on an otherwise forgettable day for him was a break of 109 in the fourth frame.

Asjad Iqbal edged out the veteran Imran Shahzad 5-3 with the scores of 23-64, 70-4, 66-67, 72-44, 111-30, 70-35, 56-60, 67-19. Ali Haider also upstaged his senior rival, Sohail Shahzad, 5-3 with the frame scores being 75-13, 83-27, 73-36, 67-6, 55-56, 45-69, 13-61, 70-53.

Agha Bilawal had a marathon contest with the obdurate Sultan Muhammad, before beating him 5-3 with the scores of 61-57, 31-59, 27-70, 64-31, 23-88, 86-15, 61-37, 70-36.