Sharjeel stuns Shan as National Snooker enters knockout stage

KARACHI: The 49th National Snooker Championship entered the knockout stage as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Sharjeel Mahmood stunned number six seed Shan Naimat of Islamabad to knock him out of the tournament.

Sharjeel won 4-2 against Shan, with the frame scores of his victory being 69-43, 67-53, 62-38, 57-70, 33-62, and 72-12. In other matches, National Bank’s Asjad Iqbal played brilliantly to defeat Islamabad’s Faisal Daniyal 4-2 in a thrilling contest.

Also, Punjab’s Owais Munir tamed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Sarbland Khan 4-0. In another game, Punjab’s Naseem Akhtar defeated Balochistan’s Asadullah 4-2. Islamabad’s Abdul Javed also won an important game against Balochistan’s Bahadur Khan 4-0. Meanwhile, Punjab’s Shahid Aftab and Ahsan Ramzan won their respective matches.

According to Tournament Director Naveed Kapadia, the league matches ended on the eighth day of the event at the Snooker Arena of the National Bank Sports Complex. The pre-quarterfinals, consisting of the best of nine frames, will be played on Wednesday (today).

In the pre-quarterfinals on Wednesday (today), Awais Munir will face Sharjeel Mahmood, while Balochistan’s Adil A. Jabbar will face A. Sattar (Sindh). Muhammad Sajjad will be in action against Asjad Iqbal, Zulfiqar A. Qadir will face M. Naseem Akhtar, Shahid Aftab will compete against Waseem Abbas, Muhammad Shabaz will clash with Sohail Shehzad, Ian Mark John will play Babar Masih, and Mubashir Raza will face Muhammad Asif.