Sajjad sets record by chalking up maximum break of 147

KARACHI: Second seed Muhammad Sajjad set a national record by chalking up the first-ever maximum break of 147 during his 5-4 win over unseeded Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir in the quarter-finals of the NBP 46th National Snooker Championship 2021 here at the NBP Sports Complex in Clifton on Saturday.

In the other quarter-finals, unseeded Ahsan Ramzan dethroned top seeded Muhammad Asif while unseeded Haris Tahir eliminated third seed Shahid Aftab. Eighth seed Babar Masih forced his way into the semifinals with a crushing win over unseeded Muhammad Faizan.

Both the semifinals will be played on Sunday (today) with giant killers Haris and Ahsan to be pitted against Sajjad and Babar, respectively.

The first semifinal, featuring Sajjad and Haris, is due to begin at 10am. It will be followed by the semifinal between Babar and Ahsan, scheduled to begin at 12:30. The final will take place on Monday (tomorrow).

Although the young duo of Ahsan and Haris created the big upsets by routing top cueists, it was the record breaking Sajjad’s break of 147 that became the headline of one of the historic days of Pakistan snooker. It’s for the first time that a Pakistani has compiled a maximum break of 147 in any national ranking event.

Sajjad started the day with a bang as he warmed up with a break of 62 in the opening frame. He followed it up with the record break of 147 in the next frame and went 3-0 up in no time with another superb break of 63 in the third frame.

His opponent, Zulfiqar Qadir, reduced to being mere spectator in three frames, showed some grit in the fourth frame but Sajjad clinched it too which brought him just one frame from completing victory. It was at this point that the unseeded cueist demonstrated incredible resilience to win the next four frames. But he was unable to stop the former champion from snatching the decisive ninth frame. Sajjad won it 5-4 with the frame scores of 100-8, 147-0, 72-0, 77-52, 53-70, 1-64, 42-66, 55-35, 94-28.

Ahsan Ramzan came up with a stunning performance to overwhelm Asif 5-2 with the scores of 70-57, 44-83, 71-33, 93-45, 78-49, 13-67.

Haris meted out similar treatment to third seed Shahid, defeating him 5-2 with the frame scores of 74-44, 68-24, 29-65, 43-64, 79-51.

Eighth seed Babar didn’t allow any liberties to his unseeded rival, Muhammad Faizan, beating him neck and crop 5-1 with the frame scores of 64-30, 100-27, 131-174-12, 55-79, 61-8.

Meanwhile, the top officials of the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), Ali Asghar Valika (Patron), Jawed Karim (President) and Alamgir Anwar Shaikh lauded Sajjad on his break of 147.