Asif, Shahid, Babar confirm pre-quarters berths

KARACHI: Top seeded Muhammad Asif, third seed Shahid Aftab and eighth seed Babar Masih confirmed their berths for the knockout rounds as the other five seeds struggled to move beyond the preliminary rounds of the NBP 46th National Snooker Championship 2021 here at the NBP Sports Complex in Clifton on Wednesday.

Second seed Muhammad Sajjad, fourth seed Muhammad Bilal, fifth seed Ahsan Javaid, sixth seed Mubashir Raza and seventh seed Naseem Akhtar will need to overcome their respective opponents on the seventh and last day of preliminary round matches to stay afloat in the competition.

Asif, the defending champion, has leisurely stormed into the next round by having triumphed in all his six outings in the Group A but second seed Sajjad finds himself in a tough situation having lost his first couple of matches in the Group B.

Third seed Shahid and unseeded Ahsan Ramzan shared the top two slots in the Group C to ensure their passage into the knockout rounds.

The unseeded duo of Sheikh Mudassir and Muhammad Ijaz qualified for the last 16 from the Group D and the Group E, respectively, making things tougher for fourth seed Bilal and fifth seed Ahsan.

Sixth seed Mubashir and seventh seed Naseem have greater chance of making it to the knockout rounds as both the slots in their respective groups remained open going into the final day of league matches.

Eighth seed Babar and unseeded Haris have already qualified for the pre-quarter-finals from the Group H.

Results: Shaikh Mudassir (Pjb) bt Ali Hamza (Sindh) 4-1 (58-84, 72-0, 84-6, 61-50, 89-1); Nadeem Gul (Pjb) bt Abdul Javed (Isb) 4-2 (72-58, 13-77, 62-25, 109-9, 13-60, 60-44); Ahsan Ramzan (Pjb) bt Waqar Ahmed (Isb) 4-0 (89-63, 75-51, 81-34, 78-0); Hammad Hassan Shaikh (Pjb) bt Farrukh Usman (Sindh) 4-3 (20-54, 75-25, 48-61, 64-70, 94-1, 67-66, 62-53); Sharjeel Mahmood (KP) bt Zubair Tahir (Pjb) 4-0 (67-7, 64-41, 59-27, 67-1); Adil Khan (Bal) bt Saifullah (Pjb) 4-1 (101-5, 41-67, 73-41, 90-20, 70-25); Muhammad Shahzad (Pjb) bt Abdul Qadir Ashir (Bal) 4-1 (82-1, 66-18, 41-71, 71-49, 60-51); Rambail Gul (KP) bt Munawwar Khaliq (Isb) 4-2 (39-59, 78-19, 60-53, 56-46, 40-56, 92-17); Awaisullah (Pjb) bt Abdul Sattar (Sindh) 4-2 (91-4, 1-60, 69-36, 67-68, 73-36, 76-64); Haris Tahir (NBP) bt Sultan Muhammad (Sindh) 4-0 (93-12, 124-0, 69-5, 110-6); Asjad Iqbal (NBP) bt Yaqoob Khan (KP) 4-0 (67-28, 82-10, 62-31, 64-12); Muhammad Saleem (KP) bt Waseem Abbas (Pjb) 4-1 (71-8, 72-43, 32-69, 72-49, 55-51); Muhammad Faizan (Sindh) bt Ibrahim Khan (Bal) 4-3 (20-78, 20-71, 61-23, 77-35, 42-79, 63-7, 66-43); Sattar Khan (Isb) bt Aamir Shahzad (KP) 4-1 (10-71, 76-33, 54-36, 68-28, 76-50); Saad Khan (KP) bt Bahadur Khan (Bal) 4-1 (80-17, 61-18, 43-11, 38-5, 75-34); Umair Haider (Pjb) bt Taufiq Johri (Sindh) 4-0 (66-37, 63-15, 56-26, 48-12); Muhammad Ijaz (Pjb) bt Shaikh Muzammil (Pjb) 4-0 (92-16, 67-45, 72-12, 70-11); Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir (Sindh) bt Hamza Ilyas (Pjb) 4-2 (83-1, 8-81, 16-75, 79-21, 90-17, 98-0).