KARACHI: After a plethora of upsets over the past one week, the country is set to have a new national snooker champion as the unseeded duo of Shan Naimat and Sultan Muhammad will be the combatants in the title clash of the NBP 47th National Snooker Championship 2023 here at the NBP Sports Complex in Clifton on Tuesday (today).
The semifinals, contested on Monday, followed the similar pattern of earlier days of the event as both the seeded cueists, hailing from Punjab, were toppled by their unseeded opponents coming from other places. Fifth seed Shahid Aftab was edged out by Sultan Muhammad while Shan Naimat knocked out eighth seed Awaisullah Munir.
The two semifinals produced contrasting results. Shah Naimat, a qualifier from Islamabad, took only two hours and 20 minutes to overpower eighth seed Awaisullah Munir of Punjab 6-1 with the frame scores of 43-53, 61-35, 92-23, 65-23, 81-0, 108-16, 70-6. The unseeded cueist was in top form from the outset and he dominated the proceedings by firing breaks of 81 and 108 in successive frames to bring an early finish to the match.
The other semifinal, however, turned out to be a marathon affair lasting no less than seven hours as it went to the full distance of 11 frames before Sultan Muhammad finally outmanouvred fifth seed Shahid Aftab 6-5 with the scores of 73-18, 11-64, 53-61, 51-53, 20-64, 62-12, 63-55, 35-75, 64-53, 74-21, 64-18.
