Pak cueists move into knockout phase

KARACHI: Mohammad Sajjad, Asjad Iqbal and Mohammad Bilal qualified for the knockout phase of the 33rd ACBS Asian Snooker Championship 2017 whose preliminary round matches ended in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday.

The knockout rounds of the eight-day continental event, in which 67 cueists from 23 countries had entered, will be getting underway with the round of 32 on Wednesday (today).

According to the draws for the round of 32, Sajjad will lock horns with Rais Senzahi of Afghanistan, Asjad will be up against Li Yan of China and Bilal will be pitted against Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon of Thailand.

Interestingly, all the three Pakistanis, having come up with impressive performance on the first few days, suffered losses in their last league outings which could serve as a timely wakeup call for them ahead of the more demanding knockout stage.

Sajjad, Pakistan’s reigning national champion, after winning his first three matches in the Group M, lost to Li Yan of China, who won the match 4-2 with scores of 83-18, 13-92, 58-42, 116-2, 1-139, 126-9, signing off with a break of 83.

The 31-year-old former world number two had booked his place in the knockout phase by overpowering Ja Jin Ong of Singapore and Ibrahim Adel of Iraq and Khamis Alobaidli of Qatar in his earlier games.

Asjad, a promising youngster, was undone by Lv Haotian of China, who won the game 4-2 with the frame scores of 78-36, 0-97, 111-14, 18-77, 63-26, 62-18.

The 25-year-old Asjad occupied the second position in the Group P by beating Husain Mahmood of Bahrain and Abdulraouf Saigh of Saudi Arabia.

Bilal, the Pakistan’s national champion last year, suffered his first defeat in the tournament as he was edged out by Lee Chun Wai of Hong Kong, who won the seven-frame duel with the scores of 55-65, 64-22, 77-2, 17-72, 60-0, 63-72, 66-38.

Placed in the Group H, he had earlier beaten Uzitogogtokh Davaasuren of Mongolia and Khalil Busaif of Bahrain.