While Imran suffered a setback, there were no other surprises as second-seed Sohail Shahzad, former national champion Mohammad Sajjad and Naveen Perwani began their campaigns on a winning note.
Imran, who clinched the last national ranking event in July with a straight-frame victory against Sohail, never got going against Usman.
Usman, representing Sindh, took the first two frames 77-16, 60-16 before suffering a 38-52 loss in the third. However, he never looked back after that and secured the following two frames 68-41 and 47-15 to clinch the match.
Meanwhile, Sohail started his campaign with a 4-2 win over Javed Ansari. The Karachi-based cueist looked confident as he overcame Ansari with frame scores of 80-5, 68-26, 32-75, 49-62, 62-24 and 57-47.
Sajjad, the former Asia number two, also started off impressively outclassing the experienced Abu Saim 4-1. He displayed perfect potting as he won with a 59-39, 49-34, 53-63, 77-30 and 59-51 score-line.
Perwani, a seasoned campaigner, overwhelmed Zahoor Ahmed to take full points on the opening day. He used his vast experience to outwit the upcoming cueist 4-1 with frame scores of 71-13, 66-48, 77-8, 46-60 and 71-32.
In other matches, Mohammad Asif, Umair Alam, Khurram Agha and Sultam Mohammad prevailed over their opponents to boost their chances in the championship.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 24th, 2011.
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