U21 Asian Snooker Championship: Debutant Akhtar impresses but fails to go all the way

Crashes out of semi-final after losing to Zhengyi 5-1

KARACHI: National U21 and U18 champion Naseem Akhtar's debut run at the U21 Asian Snooker Championship was cut short as he crashed out of the tournament following defeat to Fan Zhengyi 5-1 in the semi-final in Chandigarh.

Naseem began the match by taking the first frame 67-54 but failed to keep the pressure on Zhengyi, who ripped him apart with scores of 60-12, 103-28, 62-29, 69-9, 65-55 in the semi-final.

Meanwhile, Haris Tahir lost a very close quarter-final match to China's Yuan Sijun 5-4 which ended his dream of getting beyond the last-eight at the championship.

This was Tahir's second appearance in the competition and he had easily reached the quarter-final last year too.

Meanwhile, according to the team manager Naveed Kapadia, the players were overcome by better competition and they need to up their game for next year.

Both Tahir, 17 and Akhtar, 16 showed good results in the group matches where they both led the pool with most frames won.

"It was still a better performance for Pakistan compared to last year," Kapadia told The Express Tribune from Chandigarh. "Our players would crash out in the last-16 or only make to quarter-final. This time it is a step forward."

He added that it was a tough match for Tahir, and that the Lahore-based player gave his all in the quarter-final.

"He performed well, even if he lost; but he gave a good fight," said Kapadia. "I feel it was a battle of nerves at the end of the day that got better of these two."

Pakistan were fielding three players in the championship but only Akhtar and Tahir managed to make it to the knockout round as Peshawar's Muhammad Rafiq, 15 crashed out of the group stage.

The team will return to Pakistan on Saturday.