Four unseeded cueists reach National Snooker quarters

KARACHI: The seeded quartet of Muhammad Asif, Muhammad Sajjad, Shahid Aftab and Babar Masih, alongwith the unseeded quartet of Ahsan Ramzan, Haris Tahir, Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir and Muhammad Faizan, stormed into the quarter-finals of the NBP 46th National Snooker Championship 2021 here at the NBP Sports Complex in Clifton on Friday.

All the four quarter-finals, to be best-of nine-frame fixtures, will start at 10 am on Saturday (today). Top seeded Asif will meet unseeded Ahsan, second seed Sajjad will lock horns with unseeded Zulfiqar, third seed Shahid will combat unseeded Haris and eighth seed Babar will tackle unseeded Faizan.

Unseeded Haris created the biggest upset of the day by toppling fourth seed and former champion Muhammad Bilal 5-3 with the frame scores of 24-58, 44-58, 60-21, 41-85, 64-31, 65-14, 62-27, 80-50.

Three of the eight pre-quarter-finals went to the full distance of nine frames.

Asif had to bring all his experience into play to edge out unseeded Umar Naeem 5-4 with the scores of 83-30, 127-8, 89-33, 27-68, 66-36, 20-73, 57-66, 4-69, 64-31. Helped by a break of 83 in the second frame, he was leading comfortably 4-1 until his rival produced breaks of 60 and 64 frames to make it four-all. Asif, however, pocketed the decisive ninth frame.

Babar faced similar situation while elbowing out unseeded Sharjeel Mahmood 5-4 with the scores of 90-30, 96-11, 80-34, 108-30, 9-88, 15-95, 0-99, 36-64, 77-0. Firing a superb break of 104 in the fourth frame to move into 4-0 lead, Babar saw his dangerous opponent snatch the next four frames to draw level before the seeded cueist settled the issue with another classy break of 61 in the decisive ninth frame.

Sajjad whacked unseeded Muhammad Saleem 5-1 with the scores of 24-72, 82-11, 99-10, 93-0, 68-25, 78-48, posting breaks of 58, 62 and 62 in successive frames.

Shahid overwhelmed unseeded Awaisullah 5-2 with the scores of 21-91, 72-79, 58-24, 71-60, 69-55, 80-38, 122-9, signing off with a sensational break of 122.

In the pre-quarters contested between unseeded cueists, Zulfiqar whacked Muhammad Ijaz 5-1 with the scores of 71-45, 72-18, 39-57, 72-14, 72-25, 61-56; Ahsan demolished Umair Haider 5-1 with the frame scores of 106-47, 55-27, 70-39, 16-75, 62-58, 48-9; and Faizan overcame Shaikh Mudassir 5-4 with the scores of 53-41, 71-8, 62-55, 27-58, 88-15, 53-68, 34-68, 14-70, 70-28.