Punjab quartet enter National Snooker semis

KARACHI: The Punjab quartet of Muhammad Asif, Asjad Iqbal, Muhammad Ahsan Javaid and Shahid Aftab stormed into the semifinals of the Jubilee Insurance 45th National Snooker Championship 2020, overcoming their respective opponents in the quarter-finals here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Monday.

Both the semifinals are scheduled to begin simultaneously at 10 am on Tuesday (today) in which top seeded Muhammad Asif will be pitted against third seed Asjad Iqbal while Muhammad Ahsan Javaid will combat Shahid Aftab in the battle of unseeded cueists.

In the quarter-finals, Muhammad Asif, the reigning world champion, edged out seventh seed Babar Masih, third seed Asjad Iqbal knocked over eighth seed Muhammad Naseem Akhtar, Muhammad Ahsan Javaid whipped Ali Haider and Shahid Aftab elbowed out Mubashir Raza. Two of the four quarter-finals went to the full distance of nine frames. Asif came from behind to overcome Babar 5-4 with the frame scores of 78-47, 16-67, 118-0, 22-87, 41-61, 69-52, 83-14, 55-62, 62-25.

Babar, having shown great consistency in the past games, seemed on course of inflicting a win over top seeded Asif when he ran into 3-2 lead in the best of nine-frame encounter. He was on top of his game while building a classy break of 87 in the fourth frame.

But Asif, after having lost the momentum for a while, fought back gallantly to snatch the decisive ninth frame to settle the issue. Having fired a break of 87 in the third frame, he chalked up another crucial break of 83 in the seventh frame to stay afloat in the fiercely fought contest. Shahid Aftab and Mubashir Raza were also locked in a fierce due which the former narrowly won 5-4 with the frame scores of 9-87, 63-51, 66-0, 72-55, 51-63, 33-62, 59-45, 8-72, 61-33. Shahid, a former national champion, had to bring all his experience into play to tame his young opponent, who was in no mood to surrender.

It turned out to be a very absorbing encounter and the closest of all the four quarter-finals. Third seed Asjad Iqbal played superbly to overpower eighth seed Muhammad Naseem Akhtar 5-2 with the scores of 121-9, 57-35, 55-59, 38-61, 80-1, 94-11, 84-1.

Starting with a fabulous break of 121 in the opening frame, Asjad fired half century breaks in each of the last three frames to blow the whistle on the young Naseem, a former world junior champion.

Naseem did well to draw level after losing the first couple of frames but he was nowhere in picture when Asjad drove home the advantage with his rare ability of building big breaks in the next three frames.

Unseeded Muhammad Ahsan Javaid continued his march towards glory by hammering Ali Haider in straight frames with the scores of 80-13, 69-26, 66-58, 57-45, 74-31.