Mubashir stuns Asif in National Snooker

KARACHI: Wild card entrant Mubashir Raza stunned defending champion Muhammad Asif on the opening day of the Jubilee Insurance 44th National Snooker Championship 2019 which cued off here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Wednesday.

Second seed Asif, who is also a former world champion, met with disaster in the very first match of the competition as Mubashir, with a spectacular start to his campaign, justified the decision of the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) to have granted him a wild card entry in the Nationals.

The reigning Under-16 champion, Muhammad Hamza Ilyas, rewrote history books by making his debut in the National Snooker Championship at the age of 13 years and 212 days. The PBSA confirmed him being the youngest-ever cueist to take part in any national ranking tournament.

Hamza, having been coached by the likes of Farhan Mirza and Imran Shahzad in his hometown (Lahore), has qualified for the mainstream circuit by virtue of winning the inaugural National Under-16 Championship just a few months ago.

The 13-year-old came very close to registering a victory in his maiden outing in the Nationals only to go down fighting in the decisive seventh frame against Ahmed Shah of Balochistan.

Ahmed Shah, in fact, was drafted in the draws at the eleventh hour as the replacement for Samiullah from the same province. In the only other change to the original draws, Agha Bilawal of Sindh came in place of Danish Haroon, also from the host province.

So despite the two changes, the number of participants for the 11-day event remained unaltered at 56, who have been divided equally in eight groups for the preliminary rounds. The top two cueists from each group will be advancing to the knockout phase, beginning from pre-quarter-finals. Both the semifinals as well as the final will be telecast live by Geo Super.

Top seeded Babar Masih and second seed Muhammad Asif, having signed the contract for the current year with the PBSA, are making their maiden appearance after the episode late last year when both of them were controversially dropped from the Egypt-bound squad following their refusal to sign the contract for 2019.

Results: Mubashir Raza (Pjb) bt M Asif (Pjb) 4-3 (62-41, 78-1, 30-59, 8-78, 68-36, 24-73, 61-17); Ahmed Shah (Bal) bt Hamza Ilyas (Pjb) 4-3 (29-70, 57-35, 26-50, 55-28, 69-55, 27-66, 79-41); Rizwan Hashmi (Sindh) bt Sarbuland Khan (KP) 4-3 (44-73, 32-66, 51-35, 50-26, 38-74, 87-12, 66-27); Babar Masih (Pjb) bt M Shahbaz (Pjb) 4-2 (27-58, 36-78, 59-40, 78-64, 72-5, 70-28); Naseem Akhtar (Pjb) bt M Mudassir (Isb) 4-2 (45-82, 67-42, 60-66, 62-8, 84-24, 66-5); Fazal Umar Butt (Sindh) bt Rabish Pervez (Bal) 4-0 (69-18, 69-26, 48-47, 69-45); Majid Ali (Pjb) bt Ali Raza (Sindh) 4-1 (40-68, 51-19, 70-14, 70-23, 82-16); Imran Qamar (Pjb) bt Ahsan Ramzan (Pjb) 4-1 (69-44, 45-56, 100-0, 73-38, 65-36); Sultan Muhammad (Sindh) bt Abdul Jalil (KPK) 4-0 (87-15, 69-2, 67-4, 70-4); Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir (Sindh) bt Imran Shahzad (Pjb) 4-0 (70-67, 68-54, 104-13, 69-6); Shaikh Mudassir (Pjb) bt Fawad Khan (KP) 4-3 (65-26, 50-71, 68-17, 55-62, 36-76, 70-46, 66-37); Aamir Tariq (Pjb) bt Bahadur Khan (Bal) 4-3 (65-7, 62-72, 51-63, 8-58, 81-26, 68-8, 63-27); Sharjeel Mahmood (KP) bt Agha Bilawal (Sindh) 4-2 (51-69, 74-16, 97-1, 65-22, 12-70, 70-19); Haris Tahir (Pjb) bt Ahsan Javaid (Pjb) 4-1 (75-16, 88-45, 65-68, 76-16, 61-9); Shafiullah (KP) bt Saeed Khan (Bal) 4-2 (15-54, 84-0, 72-23, 20-57, 70-7, 52-51); M Bilal (Pjb) bt Rashid Aziz (Pjb) 4-0 (98-10, 57-4, 97-12, 58-7); Ali Haider (Pjb) bt Farrukh Usman (Sindh) 4-0 (67-15, 18-24, 56-38, 49-1); Abdul Raziq (Bal) bt Mirza Waqas Baig (Pjb) 4-0 (59-36, 58-47, 52-11, 77-15); Shahid Aftab (Pjb) bt Aamir Sohail (KP) 4-0 (78-8, 84-4, 65-17, 70-37).