Snooker aces through to next round

Sajjad makes it to last-16 with three successive wins in tournament.

Pakistan’s top snooker players continued their domination in the 36th National Snooker Championship after making it to the prequarter-finals.

Asian number two Mohammad Sajjad, Pakistan number two Sohail Shahzad along with Imran Shahzad and Asjad Iqbal won their respective matches on the third day of the tournament while former national champion Mohammad Yousaf also made it to the last-16.

Imran beat Rambail Gul 4-1 to make it three wins in a row while Sohail continued his unbeaten run as he scraped through to defeat Nauman Awan 4-3.

Imran will face Nauman Awan while Sohail and Umair Alam will fight for a place in the last-eight.

Sajjad defeated Mohammad Javed in a close encounter, eventually winning his third match 4-3 and will be pitted against Abdul Sattar. However, it was easy sailing for Iqbal who beat Umair Alam 4-1. Iqbal will face Mohammad Asif today for a place in the quarter-finals.

Yousuf, who went down in his first match before hitting form in the second, beat Ayaz Khan 4-1 to set up a last-16 encounter with Mohammad Asif Toba.

Meanwhile, Khurram Agha suffered another setback as he lost to Mohammad Shahid 4-2. Shahid will face Gul in the prequarter-final match today.

In other matches, Naveen Perwani beat Mohammad Imran 4-3 while Imran Qamar beat Qasim Kamani 4-0. While Pervani will have a last-16 showdown with Ayaz Khan, Qamar failed to make it through to the next round after the league matches finished yesterday.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2011.