3rd Jubilee Insurance Ranking Snooker Championship 2019

Veterans dethrone young brigade

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

KARACHI: The old guard reigned supreme over the young brigade as the knockout rounds commenced upon the conclusion of the preliminary rounds in the 3rd Jubilee Insurance Ranking Snooker Championship 2019 here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Tuesday.

In the quarterfinals, Sohail Shahzad, the local favourite, dethroned Babar Masih, M Bilal, the current national champion, edged out M Ijaz, a rising star from Sargodha, M Asif, a former world champion, upstaged Asjad Iqbal, a prolific youngster, and M Sajjad, three-time national champion, came from behind to elbow out Abdul Sattar, who had looked in awesome form in the preliminary rounds.

Both the best of nine-frame semifinals will be getting underway simultaneously at 10 am on Wednesday (today). M Sajjad will take on M Bilal in the all-Punjab affair while Sohail Shahzad of Sindh will confront M Asif of Punjab.

The curtain will fall to the one-week event on Thursday (tomorrow) with the best of 13-frame final and the prize distribution ceremony, to be telecast live by Geo Television Network.

Three of the four quarterfinals went to the full distance of nine frames and one between defending champion Babar Masih and Sohail Shahzad turned out to be the longest match.

Sohail extended his brilliant form of the preliminary rounds to contain the free-flowing Babar before eventually overcoming him 5-4 with the frame scores of 86-39, 31-71, 60-30, 19-72, 63-35, 10-92, 33-60, 104-8, 44-13.

Fortunes fluctuated dramatically in the battle between the two southpaws. Sohail fired breaks of 75, 53 and 53 during the course of the marathon encounter while Babar produced a couple of breaks of 53. There was everything to play for in the decisive ninth frame and it was Sohail who controlled it from the outset and won the day. M Sajjad shattered the dream of Abdul Sattar by having tamed him 5-4 after trailing 3-4. He won with the frame scores of 77-32, 1-87, 05-65, 76-48, 89-49, 8-83, 46-82, 59-19, 71-30.

Sattar, who had played superbly in the preliminary rounds, appeared coasting into the semifinals until Sajjad staged the grand recovery, showing composure and class under pressure. Sajjad’s younger brother, M Ijaz, was however, edged out by M Bilal, the reigning national champion, who won the quarterfinal tie 5-4 with the frame scores of 0-113, 23-83, 68-52, 78-0, 70-12, 21-94, 65-31, 0-73, 61-22.

Ijaz got off to a sensational start, compiling breaks of 57 and 70 to run into 2-0 lead quickly. But Bilal hit back quickly to take the next three frames. Ijaz equalized by pocketing sixth frame with the help of a break of 78. Bilal took seventh frame and Ijaz restored parity again by claiming eighth frame. But it was Bilal who came out trumps in the decisive ninth frame.

Top seeded M Asif faced no problems in disposing of third seed Asjad Iqbal, winning the all-Punjab quarterfinal 5-2 with the frame scores of 76-29, 23-68, 36-65, 86-49, 65-59, 57-45, 56-48.

Earlier in the remaining preliminary round matches Shahid Aftab (Punjab) defeated M Hamza Ilyas (Punjab) 4-1 with the scores of 90-8, 76-6, 65-50, 22-57, 78-14, M Asif (Punjab) overpowered M Ahsan Javaid (Punjab) 4-1 with the scores of 50-81, 136-8, 71-62, 59-8, 91-0, M Ijaz (Punjab) outwitted Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir (Sindh) 4-3 with the scores of 64-37, 5-72, 0-92, 60-21, 31-88, 90-10, 75-4, Asjad Iqbal (Punjab) overcame M Naseem Akhtar (Punjab) 4-3 with the scores of 18-71, 65-51, 67-66, 60-52, 4-84,11-64, 68-63 and M Bilal (Punjab) outsmarted Mubashir Raza (Punjab) 4-2 with the scores of 67-66, 73-55, 1-79, 70-62, 50-58, 92-0.