Sajjad, who has won three out of four matches in the competition so far, qualified for the last-32 while compatriots Asif and Asjad await their fate. PHOTO: FILE
Sajjad won the first frame to take a 1-0 lead but Higgins, a former world number one, showed his class to win back-to-back frames and go 2-1 up.
However, Sajjad also asserted his credentials as he notched up consecutive wins to lead 3-2. Higgins tried to get back in the match and made it 3-3, but that was all he could do as Sajjad once again won two successive frames to win by a scoreline of 39-07, 0-38, 17-42, 42-16, 36-0, 0-67, 35-0 and 34-29.
With his confidence already sky-high, Sajjad made light work of Thailand’s Boonyarit Keattikul, winning 5-3 by scores of 60-01(60), 29-02, 09-50, 32-33, 39-02, 31-28, 16-39 and 78-02(78).
“I’m really happy to have qualified in style for the last-32 because you don’t get to beat players of Higgins’ caliber often,” Sajjad told The Express Tribune. “But this isn’t the first time I’ve won against him as I’ve defeated him earlier in my career as well. Having said that, it has given me a huge boost and I want to go as far as I can in the event.”
Sajjad has so far won three out of the four matches he has played.
Meanwhile, compatriots Mohammad Asif and Asjad Iqbal enjoyed a mixed day as both players won one match and lost the other.
Asif had a tremendous start against Egypt’s Ahmed Galal as he triumphed 5-0 with a scoreline of 58-12, 55-06, 37-16, 51-12 and 38-14.
But in his second match of the day, he narrowly lost 5-4 against Iceland’s Kristjan Helgason with scores of 22-38, 61-0(61), 77-0(73), 42-06, 0-45, 16-49, 12-42, 42-08 and 54-05.
Asjad had to taste early defeat against Wales’ Matthew Stevens, who won 5-1, but he bounced back with a 5-3 win over Malaysia’s Rory Thor by 40-0, 2-35, 72-0(72), 26-22, 42-0, 06-42, 01-43 and 34-10.
Both Asif and Asjad will now have to wait for the results of the other matches on Wednesday to know whether they have progressed to the next stage or not.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 9th, 2015.
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