Knockout stage of Sindh Cup Snooker from today

KARACHI: Top seeded Abdul Sattar and second seed Agha Bilawal reached the knockout phase of the 29th Sindh Cup Snooker Championship 2020-21 despite crashing to defeat in their last league outings here at the Legends Snooker Club in Gulistan-e-Jauhar on Thursday.

According to the details made available by the Sindh Billiard & Snooker Association (SBSA), the knockout phase of the tournament will commence with the best of nine-frame pre-quarters, which will be spread over a couple of sessions, on Friday (today). Taufeeq Memon and Umar Memon, both of them from Hyderabad, were the only outstation cueists to advance in the knockout rounds in which as many as 14 qualified from Karachi.

In the first session, due to commence at 9.30 am, Sultan Muhammad will be taking on Agha Bilawal, Jawed Ansari will be pitted against Muhammad Ali, Ali Raza will lock horns with Farrukh Usman and Naim-ul-Naseer will confront Iftikhar Khan while in the second session, scheduled to start at 12 noon, Ian Mark John will face Taufeeq Memon, Kashif Khan will battle it out against Faizan Ahmed, Sohail Shahzad will try his luck against Ali Hamza and Abdul Sattar will be tackling Umar Memon.

Fresh draws were taken out upon the conclusion of the league stage on Thursday evening. A total of 31 cueists took part in the league rounds in which 45 matches were played. The total contestants in the league qualifiers were 175 which included 25 cueists from the outside of Karachi.

The Sindh Cup, like the other three provincial tournaments being held at Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta besides the Federal Cup at Islamabad, is serving as qualifiers for the National Snooker Championship. All the eight quarter-finalists of the Sindh Cup will earn a berth in the Nationals, expected to be held here next month.

Results:

Muhammad Shahbaz (Khi) bt Muhammad Ali (Khi) 4-2 (0-1, 25-64, 57-25, 65-42, 70-30, 63-48); Kashif Khan (Khi) bt Fahad Khan (Khi) 4-2(1-0, 47-58, 53-20, 37-65, 60-55, 46-8); Sohail Shahzad (Khi) bt Muhammad Rizwan Hashmi (Khi) 4-0 (75-33, 79-14, 81-0, 70-57); Naim-ul-Naseer (Khi) bt Rizwan Abbas (Khi) 4-3 (55-65, 68-23, 70-35, 57-25, 17-62, 9-58, 67-22); Farrukh Usman (Khi) bt Meesam Zadi (Khi) 4-2 (54-14, 59-48, 49-64, 70-48, 48-62, 56-31); Jawed Ansari (Khi) bt Muhammad Zakir (Khi) 4-0 (67-23, 53-11, 66-4, 61-42); Ali Raza (Khi) bt Shariq Ali (Khi) 4-1 (32-63, 51-29, 60-15, 63-13, 52-33) Taufeeq Memon (Hyd) bt Farooq Ansari (Khi) 4-0 (Walkover); Iftikhar Khan (Khi) bt Abdul Sattar (Khi) 4-1 (72-65, 69-25, 24-64, 60-49, 61-48); Muhammad Yousuf (Khi) bt Umar Ismail (Khi) 4-0 (Walkover); Umar Memon (Hyd) bt Agha Bilawal (Khi) 4-1 (38-65, 74-45, 81-0, 75-37, 79-55); Umar Mushtaq (Khi) bt Hunain Memon (Hyd) 4-0 (Walkover); Ali Hamza (Khi) bt Nadir Shah (Khi) 4-2 (42-75, 14-62, 58-56, 60-15, 66-54, 31-6); Sultan Muhammad (Khi) bt Umar Butt (Khi) 4-0 (74-18, 63-9, 40-12, 40-0); Faizan Ahmed (Khi) bt Shehroz Zameer (Khi) 4-1 (74-7, 57-67, 68-28, 88-4, 51-22).