Hamza shocks Sajjad in National Snooker C’ship

KARACHI: Former champion Hamza Akbar, making a comeback in the domestic circuit, overpowered fourth seed M Sajjad on the fourth day of preliminary round matches of the Jubilee Insurance 45th National Snooker Championship 2020 here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Wednesday.

As expected, the battle between the two former national champions, Hamza and Sajjad, turned out to be an epic one as both the world-class cueists came up with forceful performance to settle the issue.

Sajjad, having finished as the runner-up in the World Snooker Championship a few years ago, could not press home the advantage despite have fired a couple of century breaks as Hamza, who graduated to the professional arena after having won the 31st Asian Snooker Championship at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2015, continued to make a powerful re-entry in the amateur field.

Meanwhile the other seven seeded cueists, M Asif, M Bilal, Asjad Iqbal, Sohail Shahzad, M Ijaz, Babar Masih and M Naseem Akhtar, moved a step closer towards their goal of advancing to the pre-quarter-finals by outsmarting their respective opponents.

Top seeded M Asif, also the reigning world champion, registered his fourth successive win by toppling Ameer Hamza Khan of Islamabad 4-1 while second seed and defending champion M Bilal also registered his fourth victory on a trot by blanking Rabish Pervez of Balochistan in straight frames.

Third seed Asjad Iqbal made it four wins in row by overpowering the dangerous Sharjeel Mahmood of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) while fifth seed Sohail Shahzad registered his third win in fourth outing by hammering Ali Hamza of Sindh 4-1. Sixth seed M Ijaz, whose break of 136 remains the highest on the first four days of the competition, sustained his brilliance by routing M Ajmal, a qualifier from Punjab.

Seventh seed Babar Masih extended his unbeaten run by whacking Ibrahim Khan, a qualifier from Balochistan, in straight frames. He compiled big breaks of 63, 87, 98 and 90 in every frame to serve warning to his rivals in the upcoming matches.

Eighth seed M Naseem Akhtar, a former world junior champion, also maintained his undefeated sequence by humbling Agha Bilawal of Sindh in straight frames.

Results: M Bilal (SBP) bt Rabish Pervez (Bal) 4-0 (76-1, 50-10, 86-32, 57-12); Munawwar Khaliq (Isb) bt Saad Khan (KPK) 4-2 (62-10, 16-58, 64-7, 24-58, 68-44, 53-34); M Ahsan Javaid (Pjb) bt Shariq Ali (Sindh) 4-0 (69-41, 69-22, 74-1, 63-19); M Asif (NBP) bt Ameer Hamza Khan (Isb) 4-1 (74-21, 73-59, 76-39, 13-105, 91-24); Rambail Gul (KPK) bt Shaikh M Mudassir (SBP) 4-0 (59-27, 72-36, 94-0, 58-0); M Nazeer (Pjb) bt Saqib Bashir (Bal) 4-1 (60-8, 91-8, 42-62, 58-46, 73-2); Hamza Akbar (Pjb) bt M Sajjad (NBP) 4-2 (69-23, 6-108, 83-0, 0-105, 59-48, 61-35); Bahadur Khan (Bal) bt Umar Farooq (Pjb) 4-1 (92-46, 80-18, 57-25, 38-58, 69-38); M Imran (KPK) bt Meesam Zadi (Sindh) 4-2 (37-71, 68-23, 19-60, 57-11, 65-26, 62-49); Asjad Iqbal (NBP) bt Sharjeel Mahmood (KPK) 4-1 (123-0, 64-39, 28-85, 65-52, 71-59); Shan Naimat (Isb) bt M Umar Khan (Pjb) 4-3 (27-60, 9-48, 64-1, 23-55, 58-50, 61-32, 85-29); Asif Toba (Pjb) bt M Rizwan Hashmi (Sindh) 4-1(43-83, 71-51, 53-42, 67-12, 64-49); M Ijaz (Pjb) bt M Ajmal (Pjb) 4-1(98-0, 65-53, 12-53, 86-40, 90-0); M Saleem (KPK) bt Abdul Sattar (Sindh) 4-1 (81-39, 59-52, 7-58, 74-8, 50-46); Usman Ahmed (KPK) bt Obaid Khan (Bal) 4-0 (70-39, 58-39, 73-62, 66-48); Sohail Shahzad (Sindh) bt Ali Hamza (Sindh) 4-1 (47-76, 81-0, 70-1, 74-39, 71-64); HarisTahir (NBP) bt Zubair Tahir (Pjb) 4-0 (63-19, 71-8, 65-54, 67-12); Shahid Aftab (Pjb) bt Ahsan Ramzan (SBP) 4-1 (68-41, 69-45, 80-10, 19-69, 117-0); M Naseem Akhtar (NBP) bt Agha Bilawal (Sindh) 4-0 (59-12, 66-16, 77-45, 81-1); Babar Masih (Pjb) bt Ibrahim Khan (Bal) 4-0 (83-20, 94-8, 98-34, 97-0); Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir (Sindh) bt Khizar Aziz (Sindh) 4-0 (64-39, 68-7, 62-20, 72-32); M Ali (Sindh) bt Ahmed Shah (Bal) 4-0 (65-28, 62-26, 56-22, 49-38); Mubashir Raza (Pjb) bt Rana Irfan (Pjb) 4-1 (6-78, 70-14, 87-0, 58-26, 75-21); M Yaqoob (KPK) bt Abdul Ghafoor (Bal) 4-2 (15-81, 43-62, 52-46, 66-19, 66-53, 62-9).