45th National Snooker C’ship begins today

KARACHI: The Jubilee Insurance 45th National Snooker Championship 2020 will be cueing off here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Sunday (today), a couple of dates later than originally planned.

The Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), having earlier set January 31 as the starting date for the event, has announced that the Nationals 2020 will now be staged at the same venue from February 2 to 12.

A total of 56 cueists, representing affiliated provinces, units and departments, will be in action at the Karachi Gymkhana, which has regularly been hosting the Nationals ever since the PBSA had parted ways with the Karachi Club, which remained the snooker hub of country for almost a couple of decades. The participants have been divided equally in eight groups for the preliminary rounds at the end of which the top two cueists from each group will be advancing to the knockout phase starting with pre-quarterfinals.

According to the draws released by the PBSA here on Saturday, the Group A comprises of top seeded M Asif, Shaikh M Mudassir, Rambail Gul, Ameer Hamza Khan, M Jawed Ansari, Saqib Bashir and M Nazeer while the Group B contains second seed M Bilal, Saad Khan, Munawwar Khaliq, Rabish Pervez, Aakash Rafique, M Ahsan Jawaid and Shariq Ali.

Third seed Asjad Iqbal leads the pack in the Group C in the presence of M Umar Khan, Shan Niamat, Sharjeel Mahmood, Ali Haider M Hashmi and Asif Toba while fourth seed M Sajjad heads the Group D, also having Umar Farooq, Bahadur Khan, Abdul Sattar Khan, Maisam Zaidi and M Imran.

Fifth seed Sohail Shahzad has been placed in the Group E along with Haris Tahir, Zubair Tahir, Ali Hamza, Saif Ali Khan, Shahid Aftab and Ahsan Ramzan constitute the Group E while the Group has the likes of sixth set M Ijaz, Abdul Sattar, M Saleen, M Ajmal, Ali Raza and

Seventh seed Babar Masih is drawn in the Group G alongwith Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir, Khizar Aziz, Ibrahim Khan, M Majid Ali, Ahmed Shah and M Ali while the Group H constitutes of eighth seed M Naseem Akhtar, Mubashir Raza, Rana Irfan, Agha Bilawal, Aamir Shahzad, Abdul Ghafoor and M Yaqoob.

Today’s fixtures: M Bilal (SBP) v Shariq Ali (Sindh); Saad Khan (KPK) v M Ahsan Javaid (Pjb); Munawwar Khaliq (Isb) v Aakash Rafique (KPK); M Asif (NBP) v M Nazeer (Pjb); Shaikh M Mudassir (SBP) v Saqib Bashir (Bal); Rambail Gul (KPK) v M Jawed Ansari (Sindh); M Sajjad (NBP) v M Imran (KPK); Umar Farooq (Pjb) v Maisam Zaidi (Sindh); Bahadur Khan (Bal) v Abdul Sattar Khan (Isb); Asjad Iqbal (NBP) v Asif Toba (Pjb); M Umar Khan (Pjb) vM Rizwan Hashmi (Sindh); Shan Naimat (Isb) v Ali Haider (SBP); M Ijaz (Pjb) v Obaid Khan (Bal); Abdul Sattar (Sindh) v Usman Ahmed (KPK); M Saleem (KPK) v Ali Raza (Sindh); Sohail Shahzad (Sindh) v Ahsan Ramzan (SBP); Haris Tahir (NBP) v Shahid Aftab (Pjb); Zubair Tahir (Pjb) v Saif Ali Khan (Bal); M Naseem Akhtar (NBP) v M Yaqoob (KPK); Mubashir Raza (Pjb) v Abdul Ghafoor (Bal); Rana Irfan (Pjb) v Aamir Shahzad (KPK); Babar Masih (Pjb) v M Ali (Sindh); Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir (Sindh) v Ahmed Shah (Bal); Khizar Aziz (Sindh) v M Majid Ali (NBP).