National Snooker: Asjad ousts Babar to enter semis

KARACHI: Unseeded Asjad Iqbal knocked out top seeded Babar Masih and third seed Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir dethroned second seed M Asif in the quarterfinals of the Jubilee Insurance 44th National Snooker Championship 2019 here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Thursday.

Fifth seed M Bilal forced his way into the semifinals by edging out the dangerous M Ijaz while Ali Haider prevailed over Agha Bilawal in the battle of unseeded cueists. Both the best of 11-frame semifinals, to be telecast live on Geo Super, will be contested on Friday (today). In the first semifinal, due to commence at 10 am, the giant-killer Asjad Iqbal will be up against Ali Haider, who has been one of the surprise packets of the tournament.

It will be followed by the second final, scheduled to get underway at 2 pm, in which the seeded cueists, Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir and M Bilal will lock horns for supremacy.Three of the four quarter-finals went to the full distance of nine frames with neither of the cueists prepared to lose. Eventually the trio of Babar Masih, M Asif and M Ijaz had to face elimination, despite being in position to press home the advantage.

The biggest upset of the day was the exit of Babar Masih, who had looked the most assured cueist during the event, whose preliminary rounds were contested by a total of 56 cueists, divided equally in eight groups.

Asjad Iqbal caused the shock of the tournament by overpowering Babar Masih 5-4 with the frame scores of 32-69, 126-1, 92-41, 15-112, 85-0, 64-25, 1-98, 43-62, 67-0 while Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir brought about the demise of defending champion M Asif by beating him 5-4 with the scores of 31-70, 67-56, 29-87, 12-62, 73-38, 65-24, 80-8, 0-113, 70-1.

M Bilal, a former national champion, had to bring all his experience into play to outwit M Ijaz 5-4 with the frame scores of 49-55, 43-58, 78-29, 47-61, 78-42, 32-84, 85-47, 68-47, 67-21 but Ali Haider faced little problems in routing Agha Bilawal 5-1 with the scores of 128-0, 48-02, 56-40, 58-66, 67-16, 75-45.

Asjad was expected to offer tough fight to Babar but not many people had expected the top seeded cueist to crash. The first blood was drawn by Babar with the help of a break of 56 but Asjad took command with a break of 96 in the very next frame. The third frame was clichéd by Asjad but Babar hit back with a break of 112 in the fourth frame. Asjad went 4-2 up by grabbing the next two frames but Babar kept the contest alive by taking the next two and the match was taken into the decisive ninth frame. There was an anti-climax in the last frame with Asjad in total control which meant the end of road for Babar.

Asif, aiming to retain the crown, clinched the opening frame against Zulfiqar who opened his account by taking the next frame. Asif applied the pressure to claim the next two frames but Zulfiqar was successful in drawing level again.

A break of 71 in the seventh frame allowed Zulfiqar to move into lead for the first time in the match before Asif produced a break of 113 in the next frame to keep the encounter alive. It was Zulfiqar, not Asif, who dominated the decisive frame and it was over for the former world champion.

Bilal and Ijaz were also engaged in a thriller. Ijaz held the early advantage by running into 2-0 lead after two absorbing frames. Bilal took the third frame but he was at the receiving end in the fourth frame as well.

The former national champion reduced the deficit by pocketing the fifth frame but he was in serious danger of losing the match after conceding the sixth frame in which Ijaz fired a break of 66.

The momentum was with the unseeded cueist but Bilal, one of the most accomplished cueists of the country, showed great resilience and won the next three frames on a trot to advance to the semifinals.