Asif, Asjad, Ahsan, Shahid in snooker semis

KARACHI: The Punjab quartet of Muhammad Asif, Asjad Iqbal, Ahsan Javaid and Shahid Aftab stormed into the semi-finals 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 semi-finals are scheduled to begin simultaneously at 10am on Tuesday (today) in which Asif will be pitted against Asjad Iqbal, while Ahsan Javaid will combat Shahid Aftab.

In the quarter-finals, Asif, the reigning world champion, edged out Babar Masih, Asjad knocked over Naseem Akhtar, Ahsan whipped Ali Haider and Shahid 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 to a win over 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 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 and Mubashir were also locked in a fierce duel 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 an absorbing encounter and the closest of all the four quarter-finals.

Asjad played superbly to overpower Naseem 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.

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