Naseem, Haris in U-21 Asian Snooker pre-quarter-finals

KARACHI: Pakistan’s duo of Naseem Akhtar and Haris Tahir maintained their unbeaten run in the preliminary rounds to move into the knockout stage of the ACBS U-21 Asian Snooker Championship 2017 being held in Chandigarh, India.

According to the information provided by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) here on Tuesday, Naseem and Haris qualified for the pre-quarter-finals to be held on Wednesday (today).

Pakistan’s third cueist, Mohammad Rafiq, was beaten in all his three matches.

Naseem forced his way into the knockout phase by whipping Sunny Babar of India in straight frames with the scores of 76-21, 88-0, 75-36, 68-32, firing a break of 80 in the second frame.

Having edged out Yun Fung Tam of Hong Kong 4-3 in the opening game with the frame scores of 59-11, 2-77, 70-25, 12-133, 57-17, 0-77, 62-23, he also overpowered the dangerous Narongdat Takantong of Thailand 4-2 with the scores of 80-31, 14-82, 83-6, 52-74, 71-25, 63-41.

Haris joined Naseem in the pre-quarter line-up by outwitting Ming Wa Man of Hong Kong 4-2 with the scores of 76-59, 39-66, 52-63, 69-31, 55-20, 58-39.

In his earlier matches, Haris blasted Ayman Alamri of Saudi Arabia in straight frames with the scores of 72-09, 66-20, 80-4, 73-8 as he registered breaks of 80 and 70 in the last couple of frames.  He overwhelmed Digvijay Kadian India 4-1 with the scores of 37-60, 70-50, 53-45, 90-21, 72-34.

Rafiq, however, was unable to stage a comeback as he was smashed in straight frames by Fan Zhengyi of China with the scores being 69-37, 71-47, 88-17, 73-16 in his third league outing.

Jefrey Today of Philippines had beaten him with the frame scores of 58-21, 110-5, 58-29, 69-10.  Ishpreet Singh Chadha of India defeated him 4-2 with the frame scores of 66-13, 9-69, 56-45, 69-9, 46-53, 78-53.