Asif, Sajjad progress to snooker event’s semis

Sattar ousted in last-eight of 7-nation championship.

KARACHI: Pakistan’s top-ranked cueist Mohammad Asif and former Asian number two Mohammad Sajjad cruised into the semi-finals of the Seven-Nation International Snooker Tournament, while Abdul Sattar’s dream run ended in the last-eight.

Asif, the country’s top seed at the event being held in Karachi, prevailed over Indian Yasin Merchant 5-3, while Sajjad beat Egypt’s Mohamed Ibrahim Mohamed by the same scoreline. Sattar, however, was humbled by Hossein Vafaei Ayouri of Iran 5-0.

In another last-eight fixture, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh of Thailand beat countryman Noppon Saengkham 5-4 with frame scores of 70-64, 0-82, 25-56, 8-91, 80-50, 104-0, 98-09, 55-70, 65-06.

Asif impresses

The cueist showed why is the country’s number one player as he dispatched off Merchant in style. After clinching the opener 61-47, Asif saw the match levelled 3-3 but kept his nerve to clinch the following two frames 64-7, 74-9 to win the best-of-nine encounter.

“I was confident right from the start,” Asif told The Express Tribune after the battle. “The victory is a huge achievement for me because Merchant is a big player.

“He did well in the event but I took advantage of the errors he made today.”

Asif, who will face Thai cueist Thepchaiya Un Nooh today, is expecting a tough semi-final.

“My opponent is a very experienced campaigner and one of the leading cueists in Asia but I am looking forward to a good show.”

Sajjad prevails

Meanwhile, Sajjad downed Ibrahim with frame scores of 1-97, 74-34, 54-50, 1-78, 57-70, 107-25, 59-34, 83-28, including a century break in the sixth frame. The cueist will face Ayouri, who beat Sattar in a one-sided quarter-final.

Ayouri won with frame scores of  92-0, 92-12, 72-30, 69-63, 56-30.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 8^th, 2012.