Snooker: Asjad, Mubashir storm into pre-quarters

KARACHI: The rampaging Pakistan duo of Asjad Iqbal and Mubashir Raza stormed into the pre-quarter-finals of the Men’s event and the trio of Mohammad Yousuf, Khurram Hussain Agha and Imran Shahzad cruised into the last 16 of the Masters competition of the IBSF World Snooker Championships 2017 being staged in Doha, Qatar.
Asjad and Mubashir have kept Pakistan’s hopes of regaining the world crown alive after the shocking exit of Mohammad Asif, former champion, and Mohammad Naseem Akhtar at the first hurdle of the knockout phase.
Asjad, one of the most consistent cueists of Pakistan, blew the whistle on Rhydian Richards of Wales in the round of 32, defeating him 5-3 with the scores of 8-60, 106-9, 1-52, 70-34, 78-36, 69-57, 40-70, 95-0 which included his fluent breaks of 74, 74, 69 and 94 in the 2nd, 5th, 6th and 8th frames respectively.
On the other hand, the young Mubahsir, making his debut in the World Championship, stunned the prolific Moh Keen Hoo of Malaysia 5-2 with the scores of 53-61, 88-0, 56-54, 54-61, 72-47, 62-2, 101-0, signing off with a superlative break of 96. It may be recalled that the Malaysian had brought about the elimination of the seeded Asif by routing him in the round of 64 the other day.
In the best of nine-frame quarter-finals, Asjad will be up against the vastly experienced Pankaj Advani of India while Mubashir will lock horns with Ehsan Heydari Nezhad of Iran.
Meanwhile all the three participating Pakistani cueists comfortable got through to the pre-quarter-finals after prevailing over their respective rivals in the round of 30.
Mohammad Yousuf, a former champion, whipped Munier Cassim of South Africa 4-1 with the scores of 80-31, 79-15, 91-6, 47-69, 85-5, chalking up masterly breaks of 41 and 79 in successive frames.
Imran Shahzad tamed Phaithoon Phonbun of Thailand 4-1 with the scores of 21-86, 49-39, 64-9, 121-0, 73-2 which contained impressive breaks of 46, 50, 59, 52 and 63.
Khurram Agha was even more ruthless while bulldozing David Judd of New Zealand in straight frames with the scores of 128-6, 86-13, 83-45, 65-31. He got off to a sensational start by firing a magnificent break of 128 in the opening frame and sustained the momentum with another break of 61 in the very next frame.
In the best of seven-frame pre-quarter-finals Imran will be taking on Peter McCullagh of Australia, Khurram will be in action against Elfed Evans of Wales while Yousuf will be confronting the winner of the game between Ng Yam Shui of Hong Kong and Wang Chool Tan of Belguim.