Three seeded cueists fail to reach knockout phase

KARACHI: The seeded quintet of Muhammad Asif, Muhammad Sajjad, Shahid Aftab, Muhammad Bilal and Babar Masih moved into the knockout rounds but the other three seeds, Mubashir Raza, Ahsan Javaid and Naseem Akhtar, failed to do so as the preliminary round matches of the NBP 46th National Snooker Championship 2021 ended here at the NBP Sports Complex in Clifton on Thursday.

All the eight quarter-finals, to be best-of-nine-frame encounters, will be contested on Friday (today).

In the morning session, due to commence at 10 am, second seed Sajjad will clash with unseeded Muhammad Saleem, third seed Shahid will lock horns with unseeded Awaisullah, fourth seed Bilal will take on unseeded Haris Tahir, while Muhammad Ijaz will be up against Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir in a duel of unseeded cueists.

In the afternoon session, scheduled to begin at 1pm, top seeded and defending champion Asif will confront unseeded Umar Naeem, eighth seed Babar will lock horns with unseeded Sharjeel Mahmood, Umair Haider will be pitted against Ahsan Ramzan and Muhammad Faizan will combat Shaikh Mudassir.

Asif became the Group A champion with an unbeaten record with Awaisullah ending as the runner-up.

Sajjad, who lost his first couple of matches, staged a great recovery to emerge as the Group B leader with Sharjeel claiming the runner-up spot.

Shahid topped the Group C with five victories in six outings with Ahsan Ramzan finishing as the runner-up.

Bilal was the Group D champion, followed by Shaikh Mudassir.

There was no place for Mubashir Raza in the last 16 as Muhammad Ijaz and Umar Naeem shared the top two positions in the Group E.

Umair Haider and Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir qualified for the pre-quarters from the Group F, ousting Ahsan Javaid.

The duo of Muhammad Faizan and Muhammad Saleem denied Naseem Akhtar a place in the last 16 from the Group G.

Babar comfortably topped the Group H with six straight wins with Haris Tahir ending as the runner-up.