PHOTO COURTESY: PBSA
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.
Teenage snooker trio leave for India in high spirits
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.
COMMENTS (1)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ