Sajjad extends his purple patch as unseeded Ahsan knocks over Babar

KARACHI: Unseeded Ahsan Ramzan knocked over eighth seed Babar Masih but second seed Muhammad Sajjad extended his purple patch by overcoming Haris Tahir in the semifinals of the NBP 46th National Snooker Championship 2021 here at the NBP Sports Complex in Clifton on Sunday.

The final between Sajjad and Ahsan will commence at 10 am on Monday (today).

Both the semifinals proved to be absorbing. Ahsan showed great resilience in taming Babar 6-5 with the frame scores of 55-22, 83-9, 11-101, 83-8, 0-70, 58-59, 2-60, 84-2, 54-48, 46-57, 60-2, while Sajjad brought all his expertise into play to overcome the dangerous Haris 6-4 with the scores of 33-95, 66-57, 4-71, 69-0, 64-23, 59-71, 58-20, 61-89, 67-15, 62-29.

Babar, who had remained undefeated in the tournament, was finally brought under pressure by Ahsan who pocketed the first couple of frames in the best-of-11 encounter. The seeded cueist chalked up a superb break of 84 in the third frame but lost the plot yet again in the following frame.

Refusing to be flattened, Babar clinched the fifth frame comfortably to make it 3-2 and drew level by claiming the next one which went to the wire. He moved into the lead for the first time by winning the seventh frame but Ahsan made it four-all. Both the contestants were then tied at five frames each and there was everything to play for in the final frame. It was Ahsan who called the shots in the decisive frame and it was all over for Babar. Former champion Sajjad, who had created history by registering the first-ever maximum break of 147 only the other day, was made to work extremely hard by his young opponent in the other semifinal.

Haris drew the first blood but Sajjad equalised by securing the next frame. The unseeded youngster took the lead again by claiming the third frame and Sajjad had to fire a break of 51 in the fourth to draw level.

He consolidated his position by running away with the next frame but Haris chased him and parity was restored again when he won the eighth frame.

Sajjad, however, didn’t let his opponent come close in the next couple of frames to close the deal. It was his vast experience which enabled him to press home the advantage in crunch situation.