Asif tops national snooker rankings

KARACHI: As was expected, massive changes occurred in the national snooker rankings following the plethora of upsets in the 11th NBP Ranking Snooker Championship 2019 held here at the NBP Sports Complex a few weeks ago.

According to the latest national ranking chart, released by Naveed Kapadia, Tournament Director and the officiating Joint Secretary of the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), here on Friday, the majority of the previously seeded cueists have been affected by their underwhelming performance in the recent tourney.

The veteran Muhammad Asif, a former world champion, is the biggest gainer, however, among the seeded lot. Having been No 7 before the event, he has surged to the top position after regaining the trophy.

The 37-year-old Asif, hailing from Faisalabad, was fortunate to have got away with it in some close encounters.

Mubashir Raza, who went down fighting in what turned out to an epic final of the NBP championship, extending to the full distance of 15 frames, leapfrogged from 18th position to fifth. He has made to the elite list of top eight cueists for the first time in his career.

Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir, who was third, moved to second position despite having been knocked over in the quarter-finals.

Asjad Iqbal, ranked second, is now No 3. Muhammad Bilal, the reigning national champion, slipped to fourth place. He entered the NBP Championship as the top seed.

Naseem Akhtar, a former World Under-18 champion, jumped to the sixth position, having been placed at number 11 earlier. Muhammad Ijaz dropped from sixth to seventh place. Ahsan Javaid, another promising youngster, made a significant jump, from 23rd to eighth place.

Sohail Shahzad, Majid Ali, Haris Tahir, Muhammad Sajjad, Ahsan Ramzan, Muhammad Shahbaz, Babar Masih and Ali Haider occupy the next eight places. The 17th to the 24th positions are occupied by Rashid Aziz, Abdul Sattar, Abu Saim, Imran Shahzad, Shahid Aftab, Agha Bilawal, Rambail Gul and Sultan Muhammad. The top 24 cueists will be retained for the third national ranking event of the year, due to be held in September.