World 6-Red Championship: Iqbal, Shehzad make it to last-32

Pakistan cueists to vie for berths in last-16 round as compatriot Masih crashes out

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Asjad Iqbal and Sohail Shehzad advanced to the last-32 stage of the IBSF World 6-Red Championship after winning their respective last-64 matches yesterday in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

Iqbal will be up against India’s Anuj Uppal for a place in the last-16, while Shehzad will lock horns with England’s Simon Dent in his last-32 clash.

Shehzad, who had thrashed Hong Kong’s Man Hoi Leong 4-0 in the last-96 match, beat Qatar’s Ahmed Saif 4-2 in their last-64 battle despite going down in the first frame as he won by overall scores of 39-22, 68-00, 61-00, 13-45, 36-25, 58-02.

Meanwhile, Iqbal registered a 4-2 victory against Malaysia’s Mohd Reza Hassan in his last-64 duel.

It was an easy sailing initially for the Pakistan cueist as he won three straight frames to go 3-0 up before Reza hit back to cut down the lead to 3-2. However, Iqbal prevented his Malaysian opponent from levelling the field and eventually triumphed with scores of 47-00, 51-04, 40-11, 09-56, 34-40, 47-11.

Iqbal had earlier beaten Egypt’s Mohamed Essam 4-0 with scores of 44-13, 36-28, 34-01, 39-07.

On the other hand, Babar Masih was knocked out in his last-64 match by Wales’ Darren Morgan, who won 4-1 with scores of 68-00, 37-04, 18-33, 44-00, 68-00.

Masih had won his last-96 match 4-1 against Mohamed Shehab of UAE with scores of 36-06, 38-36, 06-38, 52-00, 37-12.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2016.

Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.