KARACHI: While his compatriots continued to dominate, Pakistan’s seeded cueist Mohammad Asif crashed to unexpected defeat at the hands of an unseeded opponent on the third day of league matches in the IBSF World Snooker Championships 2017 being staged in Doha, Qatar. According to the information made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) on Monday, Mohammad Asif, the 2012 world champion, was outsmarted by Ko Htet of Myanmar in the Men’s Championship in which Asjad Iqbal, Mubashir Raza and Mohammad Naseem Akhtar outwitted their respective rivals. All three Pakistani cueists, Imran Shahzad, Mohammad Yousuf and Khurram Agha, by extending their unbeaten run, consolidated their position in the Masters Championship. Ko Htet of Myanmar shocked Pakistan’s Mohammad Asif, top seed in the Group E, 4-1 with the frame scores of 91-20, 71-47, 74-32, 41-80, 80-45. In his earlier couple of games Asif had whacked Emad Seif of Yemen and edged out India’s Pandurangaiah 4-3. His remaining league matches will be against Mateusz Baranowski (Poland) and Ahmed Aly Elsayed (USA). Asjad Iqbal, having blasted Waleed Majid of Qatar in straight frames in his opening match of the Group M, overpowered Keishin Kamihashi of Japan) 4-2 with the scores of 77-0, 9-85, 8-97, 77-22, 86-17, 77-9. He will now be taking on Steve Mifsud (Australia), Grzegorz Biemadski (Poland) and Yilmaz Yildrim (Turkey) in remaining matches. Debutant Mubashir Raza, who had a dream start to his international career when he overcame Andreas Ploner of Austria in straight frames in the opening match of the Group L, continued his winning spree by defeating Pawel Rogoza of Poland 4-3 with the scores of 45-35, 71-36, 0-85, 20-78, 69-32, 38-73, 83-29. His other opponents in the preliminary rounds will be Ahmed Saif (Qatar) and Rafii Amrou (Morocco). Pakistan’s other debutant, the teenaged Naseem Akhtar, also got off to a sensational start by whipping Osama Anga of Libya in straight frames in the Group Q. Ivan Kakovsky of Russia, however, defeated him 4-1 with the scores of 5-85, 57-39, 61-33, 69-23, 72-36. He will be pitted against Brendan O’Donoghue (Ireland), Yuttapop Pakpoj (Thailand), and Zayed Alkhayarin (Qatar) in his remaining league outings. Pakistan’s senior cueists continued to have unblemished record in their Masters event. Yousuf, a former champion, who had blanked Januario Souza of Brazil in straight frames in his opening game, edged out Frank Schroder of Germany 3-2 with the scores of 15-68, 13-62, 58-20, 71-31, 76-5. Khurram Hussain Agha, having overpowered Alexey Borminskiy of Russia 3-1 earlier, smashed Juha Lehto of Finland in straight frames with the scores of 65-23, 76-27, 74-28. Imran Shahzad, who whipped Wang Chooi Tan of Belgium in straight frames with the scores being 75-17, 62-22, 59-10 in his opening game, meted out similar treatment to Richard Emery of England with the scores being 89-28, 70-14, 60-22. The 2017 World Championships for Men, Women and Masters, being organized simultaneously by the International Billiards & Snooker Federation (IBSF), will continue until November 27. A total of 88 cueists from 36 countries are taking part in the Men’s event while 54 participants from 27 countries, are in action in the Masters competition. There are 16 groups for the preliminary rounds in the Men’s contest. The top four cueists from each of the 16 groups will qualify for the knockout phase starting with the rounds of 64 in the Men’s Championship while the top three cueists from each of the 10 groups will make it to the knockout stage with the round of 30 in the Masters Championship.
