KARACHI: The Pakistan quintet of Asjad Iqbal, Mubashir Raza, Mohammad Yousuf Khurram Hussain Agha and Imran Shahzad was blown in the pre-quarterfinals of the of the IBSF World Snooker Championships 2017 being staged in Doha, Qatar. With Mohammad Asif, a former champion, and Mohammad Naseem Akhtar, having crashed earlier at the first hurdle of the knockout phase of the Men’s event, it was all over for Pakistan much to the disappointment of their supporters. Pakistan fielded a record number of seven cueists in the latest edition of the World Championship but none of them could enter the quarter-final stage of either the Men’s event or the Masters event. Pankaj Advani of India, who holds the distinction of winning the world title a couple of times, proved too good for Asjad in the pre-quarter-finals, defeating him 5-1 with the frames of 69-8, 115-33, 75-56, 0-94, 101-18, 97-33. Asjad’s only moment of glory came in the fourth frame when he chalked up a break of 94. It was the day of his fancied opponent, however, who compiled breaks of 103, 50 and 66 with usual calm. Ehsan Heydari Nezhad of Iran overcame stiff resistance from Pakistan’s debutant Mubashir before toppling him 5-3 with the frame scores of 80-29, 4-119, 72-59, 65-28, 63-14, 11-61, 48-77, 63-36. It turned out to be a fiercely fought pre-quarter with fortunes fluctuating dramatically. Ehsan drew the first blood with the help of a break of 61 in the opening frame but Mubashir responded with a bigger break of 95 to win the next frame. The Iranian cueist consolidated his position by claiming the next three frames on a trot but the Pakistani youngster bounced back to win the following two frames to keep the contest alive. It was Ehsan’s break of 50 in the eighth frame which proved decisive in the tense duel. All the three veteran Pakistani cueists, having given impressive account of themselves in the preliminary rounds, were also eliminated in the pre-quarter-finals of the Masters event.Ng Yam Shui of Hong Kong overpowered Mohammad Yousuf, a former champion, 4-2 with the frame scores of 62-35, 76-64, 32-52, 28-66, 75-33, 65-60 while Peter McCullagh of Australia overwhelmed Imran Shahzad 4-1 with the scores of 56-16, 73-25, 19-70, 101-0, 91-2. Khurram Agha went down fighting against Elfed Evans of Wales who won the seven-frame thriller 4-3 with the scores of 60-41, 76-67, 64-42, 27-71, 46-77, 56-68, 72-21.
