Pak cueists inch closer to knockout phase

KARACHI: All the three Pakistani participating cueists, Mohammad Sajjad, Asjad Iqbal and Mohammad Bilal, inched closer towards securing their places in the knockout phase of the 33rd ACBS Asian Snooker Championship 2017 being staged in Doha, Qatar.

A total of 67 cueists from 23 countries are contesting the preliminary rounds which will conclude on Tuesday (today). The knockout phase, starting with the round of 32, will get under way on Wednesday (tomorrow).

Mohammad Sajjad, Pakistan’s reigning national champion, extended his purple patch in Group M by registering his third successive victory in as many outings to retain the top slot in the points table.

The 31-year-old former world number two, having overpowered Ja Jin Ong of Singapore and Ibrahim Adel of Iraq in his earlier games, whacked Khamis Alobaidli of Qatar in straight frames with the scores of 100-0, 76-1, 69-36, 67-17. This included a century break in the opening frame followed by a break of 64 in the third frame. His opponent in the last league fixture will be Li Yan of China, who has won both of his matches.

Pakistan’s promising youngster, Asjad Iqbal, lived up to the billing while downing Husain Mahmood of Bahrain 4-2 with the scores of 64-35, 58-37, 64-24, 9-77, 34-46, 67-17. He had outwitted Abdulraouf Saigh of Saudi Arabia by the identical scoreline in his opening game.

The 25-year-old Asjad occupies second position in the points table in Group P and he will be taking on Lv Haotian of China and Shu Hung Lin of Taipei in his last couple of games.

Mohammad Bilal, Pakistan’s national champion last year, suffered his first defeat in the tournament as he went down fighting 3-4 against Lee Chun Wai of Hong Kong. Placed in Group H, he had earlier beaten Uzitogogtokh Davaasuren of Mongolia and Khalil Busaif of Bahrain.

The 23 participating countries in the eight-day event are Afghanistan, Bahrain, China, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Syria, Taipei, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).