Seeded brothers Sajjad, Ijaz out of National Snooker

KARACHI: Both the seeded brothers, Muhammad Sajjad and Muhammad Ijaz, besides holder Muhammad Bilal and fifth seed Sohail Shahzad were knocked over in the pre-quarter-finals of the Jubilee Insurance 45th National Snooker Championship 2020 here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Sunday.

Unseeded Muhammad Ahsan Javaid created the biggest upset of the event so far by edging out fourth seed and three times national champion, Muhammad Sajjad, whose younger brother, Muhammad Ijaz, was shocked by Ali Haider, another unseeded cueist.

Top seeded Muhammad Asif eliminated second seed Muhammad Bilal while fifth seed Sohail Shahzad was overpowered by third seed Asjad Iqbal. In another significant result, eighth seed Muhammad Naseem Akhtar overcame Hamza Akbar, a former Asian champion, who was returning to the national circuit after five years.

Seventh seed Babar Masih forced his way into the quarter-finals by whipping Muhammad Saleem, a qualifier from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), while in the other pre-quarters, contested between unseeded cueists, Mubashir Raza outsmarted Rambail Gul and Shahid Aftab blew the whistle on Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir.

All the four quarter-finals are scheduled to commence simultaneously at 10 am on Monday (today) in which Ali Haider will take on Muhammad Ahsan Javaid, Mubashir Raza will clash with Shahid Aftab, Babar Masih will be pitted against Muhammad Asif and Muhammad Naseem Akhtar will lock horns with Asjad Iqbal.

Muhammad Ahsan Javaid showed incredible resilience while elbowing out the vastly experienced Muhammad Sajjad 5-4 with the frame scores of 1-79, 135-0, 0-132, 0-80, 89-5, 66-65, 66-62, 42-63, 74-1.

For the second time in the tournament, Sajjad fired big breaks in a losing cause. Having registered a couple of century breaks during his loss to Hamza Akbar in the preliminary rounds, Sajjad’s breaks of 100, 80 and 55 were not enough to turn the tide decisively in the pre-quarters.

Sajjad’s brother Ijaz had been routed moments earlier as Ali Haider whipped him 5-1 with the frame scores of 13-59, 70-29, 67-1, 61-50, 70-40, 70-31 at the adjacent table. It was a nightmarish end of the campaign for Ijaz who had remained undefeated in preliminary rounds.

Top seeded Muhammad Asif, also the reigning world champion, faced little problems in dethroning second seed Muhammad Bilal 5-2 with the scores of 26-100, 73-41, 69-26, 7-90, 75-22, 69-8, 65-21. Bilal was made to pay the price for having suffered a shock defeat in his last league outing the other day which pushed him to the runner-up slot in Group B and pitted the defending champion against the top ranked cueist of the country as early as the pre-quarters.

Third Asjad Iqbal secured his place in the quarter-finals by taming fifth seed Sohail Shahzad 5-2 with the scores of 72-38, 28-72, 87-18, 67-49, 62-32, 18-65, 86-23. Asjad remained in control of the situation from the outset and completed the victory without much botheration.

Eighth seed Muhammad Naseem Akhtar surprised the former champion Hamza Akbar 5-1 with the scores of 55-35,130-7, 88-18, 72-46, 13-59, 69-33. The promising youngster didn’t look overawed by the situation and quietly calmly chalked up breaks of 106 and 64 to assert his supremacy against a fancied opponent.

Seventh seed Babar Masih continued his excellent form while whacking the dangerous Muhammad Saleem in straight frames with the scores of 87-13, 82-52, 71-16, 66-58, 116-2. After compiling breaks of 62 and 52 in the earlier frames, he signed off with a classy break of 116 in the fifth frame.

Mubashir Raza was engaged in a tense duel with Rambail Gul before downing him 5-3 with the scores of 72-33, 7-70, 60-28, 17-53, 3-59, 71-0, 68-49, 69-27 while Shahid Aftab, a former national champion, overcame Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir 5-2 with the scores of 26-75, 64-51, 61-55, 44-33, 46-22, 63-5, 62-32.