Muhammad Asif, Aftab Shahid to battle for snooker title today

KARACHI: Top seeded Muhammad Asif will combat one of his fiercest rivals, Shahid Aftab, in an all-Faisalabad final of the Jubilee Insurance 45th National Snooker Championship 2020 here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Wednesday (today).

Both the semi-finals began simultaneously on Tuesday morning. Shahid took two hours and 45 minutes to overpower Ahsan Javaid 6-3 with the frame scores of 56-2, 80-13, 69-38, 41-66, 71-17, 65-29, 24-98, 37-76, 62-0.

Asif, the reigning world champion, needed three hours and 15 minutes to overcome third seed Asjad Iqbal 6-4 with the frame scores of 77-50, 4-116, 0-60, 100-20, 66-68, 45-76, 77-45, 67-14, 70-21, 73-17.

The best-of-15-frame final, to be telecast live on Geo Super, is scheduled to get underway at 9am. It will be followed by the prize distribution ceremony at 3:45 pm. Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Jubilee General Insurance, Hassan Khan, will be the chief guest on the occasion.

Asif, the only Pakistani to have clinched the World Championship twice, is aiming to win the national title for the fourth time, which will make him the most successful cueist since the golden era of Muhammad Yousuf and Saleh Muhammad.

He first won the Nationals way back in 2009. He regained the crown in 2012 and then 2018. But his feat was equaled by Muhammad Sajjad in 2018, who had previously annexed the crown in 2008 and 2010.

Shahid earned the honour of becoming the national champion in 2011. Going by the current form of both vastly experienced cueists, the final is expected to be a close contest but Asif will be holding the edge because of his greater international exposure and his ability to absorb pressure. There is an opportunity, however, for Shahid too because of his maturity and never-say-die approach.

It was Shahid who made the first entry in the final when he succeeded in taming the 29-year-old Ahsan from Sialkot in the semi-finals. The 2011 national champion was off to a cracking start as he fired a break of 80 in the second frame to double his lead.

Ahsan, having played brilliantly in his earlier games, was already down by three frames when he finally got off the mark. Shahid snatched the next couple of frames to move 5-1 up which meant he was just a frame away from reaching the final.

With the pressure mounting, Ahsan pulled it back through a break of 59 in the seventh frame and he capitalised on the momentum to win the next frame as well. But Shahid pressed home the advantage in the ninth frame and it was all over for Ahsan.

There was a tougher fight on display in the other semifinal, played between two seeded cueists. Asif had to bring all his experience into play to outwit the Sargodha-born Asjad, nine years junior to him.

Asif drew the first blood with the help of a break of 65 in the opening frame but Asjad responded with a break of 115 in the very next frame, which remained the only century break of the two semi-finals.

Asjad took the lead for the first time by pocketing the third frame but Asif equalised by taking the next frame. Asjad moved ahead once again, elbowing out his fancied opponent in the fiercely fought seventh frame. He doubled the lead with a break of 72 in the sixth frame.

Trailing 2-4 down, Asif reproduced the same kind of form which has made him the world champion a couple of times. He won the next four frames on a trot to run away with the match quite comfortably in the end. He followed up a sizzling break of 62 in the ninth frame with another spectacular break of 73 in the last frame to sign off in style.