Ranking Snooker C’ship cues off today

KARACHI: A total of 25 cueists will be contesting the 3rd Ranking Snooker Championship 2019 which will get underway here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Friday (today).

The details of the one-week event were shared by the top officials of the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) and the representatives of various supporting institutions in a media briefing at the club’s banquet hall on Thursday.

The tournament, in which the top 23-ranked cueists of the country are taking part along with a couple of junior nominees, will offer a prize money of Rs195,000 with the winner to take home a handsome purse of Rs100,000 and the runner-up to collect Rs40,000.

The losing semi-finalists will be getting Rs15,000 each, with the losing quarter-finalists to receive Rs5,000 each and the highest break will also earn a reward of Rs5,000. As far as the format of the event is concerned, the 25 participants have been divided into four groups for the preliminary rounds at the end of which the top two cueists from each group will be advancing to the knockout phase, starting with the quarter-finals.

The preliminary round matches will be the best-of-seven-frame encounters while the quarter-finals and the semi-finals will be the best-of-nine-frame contests. The final, to be staged on October 17, will be the best-of-13-frame fixture.

According to the draws, top-seeded Muhammad Asif (Punjab) has been placed in Group A along with eighth seed Muhammad Ahsan Javaid (Punjab), Muhammad Sajjad (Punjab), Ali Haider (Punjab), Imran Shahzad (Punjab) and Shaikh Muhammad Mudassir (Punjab).

Second seed Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir (Sindh), seventh seed Muhammad Ijaz (Punjab) and defending champion Babar Masih (Punjab) have been drawn in Group B in the company of Haris Tahir (Punjab), Abu Saim (Punjab) and Sultan Muhammad (Sindh).

Group C comprises third seed Asjad Iqbal (Punjab) and sixth seed Muhammad Naseem Akhtar (Punjab) besides Muhammad Majid Ali (Punjab), Muhammad Shahbaz (Punjab), Abdul Sattar (Sindh) and Agha Bilawal (Sindh).

Fourth seed Muhammad Bilal (Punjab) and fifth seed Mubashir Raza (Punjab) feature in Group D with the likes of Sohail Shahzad (Sindh), Ahsan Ramzan (Punjab), Rashid Aziz (Punjab), Shahid Aftab (Punjab) and Muhammad Hamza Ilyas (Punjab).

Tahir Ahmed, Managing Director, Jubilee General Insurance, during the briefing spoke about the proactive engagement of his organization towards the promotion of healthy activities in the society which included patronage of sports.

Alamgir Anwar Shaikh, Co-chairman, PBSA, expressed hope that the top performing cueists will continue putting extra efforts to meet the challenges being thrown at them by the emerging youngsters.