Mubashir steals limelight as snooker championship begins

KARACHI: Fifth seed Mubashir Raza, by pocketing both his matches, stole the limelight on the opening day of the 3rd Jubilee Insurance Ranking Snooker Championship 2019 which cued off here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Friday.

Sixth seed Naseem Akhtar and eighth seed Ahsan Javaid succumbed to defeats at the hands of unseeded opponents. The other seeds, Muhammad Asif, Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir, Asjad Iqbal, Muhammad Bilal and Muhammad Ijaz, got off to winning starts as did the defending champion, Babar Masih.

Mubashir, hailing from Lahore, got off to a flying start to the competition as he overwhelmed Shahid Aftab, a former national champion, 4-1 in the morning session. In the afternoon, he blanked the young and promising Hamza Ilyas in straight frames which included exciting breaks of 68 and 69 in successive frames.

Unseeded Abdul Sattar proved too good for sixth seed Naseem, a former World Under-18 champion, trouncing him in straight frames. Veteran Imran Shahzad edged out eighth seed Ahsan 4-2 after an absorbing duel.

Top seeded Asif, a former world champion, prevailed over Mudassir 4-1 while second seed Zulfiqar overcame the dangerous Sultan Muhammad by an identical scoreline. Third seed Asjad whipped unseeded Agha Bilawal in straight frames while fourth seed Bilal, the reigning national champion, began his campaign with a 4-0 win over Hamza.

Sixth seed Ijaz was made to work hard to earn a 4-2 win over the vastly experienced Abu Saim while Babar started the defence of his title with a crushing straight-frame win over Haris Tahir.

With the last minute withdrawal of Rambail Gul, who was unable to travel from Khyber Pakhtumkhwa due to illness, the event is now being contested by 25 cueists, 20 of whom belong to Punjab. The remaining five are from Sindh.

The participants have been divided in four groups for the preliminary rounds at the end of which the top two cueists from each group will be proceeding to the knockout phase, starting with quarter-finals.

Besides the top 23 cueists of the country, Hamza, the National Under-16 champion, and Mudassir, the National Under-18 champion, are taking part in the event, carrying prize money of Rs195,000.

Results: Muhammad Bilal (Pjb) bt Hamza Ilyas (Pjb) 4-0 (48-43, 77-0, 65-2, 76-0); Mubashir Raza (Pjb) bt Shahid Aftab (Pjb) 4-1 (58-9, 15-64, 66-0, 62-6, 43-22); Sohail Shahzad (Sindh) bt Rashid Aziz (Pjb) 4-2 (56-44, 25-52, 56-69, 61-25, 93-1, 67-43); Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir (Sindh) bt Sultan Muhammad (Sindh) 4-1 (46-57, 75-48, 66-60, 60-39, 76-7); Asjad Iqbal (Pjb) bt Agha Bilawal (Sindh) 4-0 (68-34, 64-11, 57-20, 78-27); Abdul Sattar (Sindh) bt Naseem Akhar (Pjb) 4-0 (56-39, 88-0, 57-4, 91-4); Majid Ali (Pjb) bt Muhammad Shahbaz (Pjb) 4-1 (67-14, 63-56, 8-69, 57-81, 16-58); Muhammad Ijaz (Pjb) bt Abu Saim (Pjb) 4-2 (92-24, 41-72, 19-66, 80-14, 94-6, 73-0); Muhammad Asif (Pjb) bt Muhammad Mudassir (Pjb) 4-1 (70-66, 75-28, 39-81, 78-34, 71-8); Imran Shahzad (Pjb) bt Ahsan Javaid (Pjb) 4-2 (47-59, 82-37, 62-0, 30-67, 76-56, 70-1); Muhammad Sajjad (Pjb) bt Ali Haider (Pjb) 4-2 (73-27, 41-70, 59-38, 58-43, 53-78, 49-37); Babar Masih (Pjb) bt Haris Tahir (Pjb) 4-0 (74-56, 101-4, 59-14, 68-0); Abdul Sattar (Sindh) bt Majid Ali (Pjb) 4-2 (81-11, 68-53, 0-102, 30-82, 75-19, 65-23); Mubashir Raza (Pjb) bt Hamza Ilyas (Pjb) 4-0 (69-57, 89-21, 93-4, 73-19).