Six Karachi cueists qualify for National Snooker

KARACHI: Sultan Mohammad, Jawed Ansari, Farrukh Usman, Iftikhar Khan, Faizan Ahmed and Ali Hamza, all of them from Karachi, qualified for the upcoming National Snooker Championship by overcoming their respective rivals in the pre-quarter-finals of the 29th Sindh Cup Snooker Tournament 2020-21 here at the Legends Snooker Club in Gulistan-e-Jauhar on Friday.

The only two outstation cueists to have made it to the pre-quarters, Taufiq Memon and Umar Memon, belonging to Hyderabad, were engaged in fierce battle with Ian Mark John and Abdul Sattar, respectively, as their pre-quarters were still in progress at the time of filing of this report.

According to the results of the six completed pre-quarter-finals, made available by the Sindh Billiard & Snooker Association (SBSA), Sultan Muhammad outwitted Agha Bilawal 5-2 with the frame scores of 5-59, 89-64, 64-24, 44-23, 70-25, 22-62, 49-48. Jawed Ansari overpowered Muhammad Ali 5-3 with the scores of 82-29, 19-62, 65-36, 48-64, 22-80, 48-27, 63-25, 56-49.

Farrukh Usman re-entered the mainstream arena by toppling Ali Raza 5-1 with the scores of 73-1, 72-13, 36-74, 63-47, 53-44, 59-28. Iftikhar Khan knocked over Naim-ul-Naseer 5-2 with the frame scores of 69-56, 42-58, 71-18, 80-31, 59-6, 35-57, 57-43.

Faizan Ahmed was equally ruthless in toppling Kashif Khan 5-1 with the scores of 62-33, 18-55, 44-28, 52-43, 65-0, 58-43. Ali Hamza dashed the veteran Sohail Shahzad’s hopes by outclassing him 5-2 with the frame scores of 71-33, 64-32, 41-86, 2-65, 50-19, 57-33, 65-18.

As declared earlier by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), all the eight quarter-finalists of the Sindh Cup will earn a berth in this year’s Nationals expected to be held here next month.