Asif, Sajjad, Ahsan in world snooker semis

KARACHI: A record number of three Pakistani cueists stormed into the semifinals of the IBSF World Men Snooker Championship in Doha.

According to the information shared by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) here on Thursday, Muhammad Asif, Muhammad Sajjad and Ahsan Ramzan advanced to the semifinals to boost the chances of the world crown staying in Pakistan.

Both the semifinals were due to be played later in the evening. The title clash will take place on Friday (today). Defending champion Asif’s opponent in the semifinal was compatriot Ahsan Ramzan.

Muhammad Sajjad was to take on the winner of the quarter-final encounter between the Iran duo of Amir Sarkosh and Siyavosh Mozayani.

In the other quarter-finals, Sajjad overcame Mohamed Thaha Irshath of Sri Lanka 5-3 with the scores of 47-79, 85-1, 81-0, 42-51, 35-84, 61-26, 72-7, 65-35.

Ahsan blanked Abdelrahman Shahin of Egypt in straight frames with the scores of 62-35, 58-48, 65-47, 63-33, 75-0.

Asif crushed Bahrain’s celebrated cueist Habib Sabah 5-1 with the scores of 64-16, 89-12, 4-69, 94-1, 79-65, 65-53 which included breaks of 62, 59 and 79 in the first, second and fourth frames, respectively.

In the pre-quarters, Sajjad had edged out Cheung Ka Wai of Hong Kong 4-3 with the scores of 69-9, 5-81, 41-63, 43-74, 86-0, 74-0, 71-0.

Ahsan had ousted Renat Denkha of USA 4-2 with the frame scores of 63-29, 46-76, 51-45, 73-21, 52-69, 67-28.

Asif had knocked over former champion Pankaj Advani of India 4-2 with the scores of 73-10,77-28, 39-56, 4-98, 96-44, 53-36.