NBP Snooker: Quarter-finals line-up decided

Shehzad, Iqbal fail to make it to knockouts

KARACHI: Several top seeds, including second-ranked Sohail Shahzad and third-ranked Asjad Iqbal, yesterday missed out on the quarter-finals line-up of the ongoing 8th NBP Ranking Snooker Championship being played at the NBP Sports Complex.

Fifth-ranked Abu Saim also crashed out as the unfancied Mohammad Ijaz (18) and Zulfiqar Qadir (12) managed to progress through to the quarter-finals.

Ijaz will next face defending champion Mohammad Asif, whereas Qadir, who won 4-0 against youngster Mohammad Majid Ali, will lock horns with Shahram Changezi.

The other two knockout matches see top seed Babar Masih play against fourth-ranked Mohammad Bilal and Mohammad Sajjad take on Sharjeel Mehmood.

Iqbal, who has represented Pakistan in several recent international tournaments at the expense of seniors Asif and Sajjad, had a tournament to forget as he was beaten 4-0 by Sajjad with scores of 76-30 (76), 44-20, 68-19, 52-47.

Asif, meanwhile, thrashed Shehzad 4-1 with a scoreline of 114-13(93), 105-28(81), 65-40, 28-79, 67-09. Ijaz won his final group match 4-2 against veteran Khurram Hussain Agha with scores of 65-52, 20-56, 76-05, 21-82, 62-28, 88-38, while Masih triumphed 4-1 over Shahid Aftab.

Changezi, another senior player, had a roller-coaster encounter with Ian Mark John and eventually won 4-3 with scores of 57-49, 32-60, 72-25(70), 68-11, 35-53, 08-75(54), 75-27.

Saim registered a thrilling 4-3 win over Bilal, but fell short of qualifying for the knockouts stage.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 20^th, 2016.

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