Awais to face Nansen Wan in Asian snooker final

LAHORE: Awais Ullah Munir defeated his teammate Asjad Iqbal 5-2 to blast his way into the final of the Asian 6 Red Snooker Championship being held in Riyadh.

After losing the first two frames Awais made a stunning comeback and swept away the next five frames to qualify for the final. The frames score was 29-59, 19-42, 42+12, 67-0, 44-9, 41-30 and 70-4 (63).

He will face Nansen Wan of Hong Kong in the final on Tuesday (today). Meanwhile in the Asian Under-21 15 Red Snooker Championship Pakistan’s Hasnain Akhtar and Ahsan Ramzan qualified for the final to be held on Tuesday (today).

Hasnain Akhtar beat Shaun Liu (Hong Kong) 4-1 in the semi-final with the frames score being (64-54, 59-21, 15-61(61), 86-10, 63-35. Earlier Asjad Iqbal and Awais Ullah Munir on Monday blasted their way into the semi-finals of the ACBS Asian 6 Red Snooker Championship in Riyadh.

Both cueists were unstoppable and recorded two straight wins in the pre-quarter-finals and quarter-finals to reach the pre-final. Asjad, a former world team championship runner-up, defeated Ayman Alamri of Saudi Arabia 5-2 in the pre-quarter-finals. It was a show where Asjad faced some tough time from his opponent but he kept his cool before eventually sealing a convincing win.

Asjad also fired a 58 break in the fifth frame and 53 in the final frame. The frame score was 60-05(43), 19-43, 45-0(45), 1-40(40), 63-0(58), 39-08, 53-04(53).

In the quarter-final, Asjad downed Mhanaa Alobaidli of Qatar in straight frames 5-0. It was indeed a one-sided affair and Asjad showed his fine skills throughout, never allowing his rival to retaliate at any stage. The frames score remained 59-01, 51-05, 37-29, 46-04, 49-22.

Awais downed Chau Hon Man of Hong Kong 5-4 after a grueling fight in the pre-quarter-final. The pendulum kept fluctuating before the Pakistani cueist recording a win.