Snooker: Ayouri lifts U21 crown

KARACHI: Iran’s Hossein Vafaei Ayouri won the Asian Under-21 Snooker Championship by beating China’s Anda Zhang 6-2 in Goa, India.

Zhang suffered at the hands of Ayouri, who registered big breaks to leave his opponent bewildered. The Iranian raced to a 5-0 lead but Zhang bounced back to win the next two frames. Ayouri, however, made sure that he did not allow Zhang a miraculous recovery and thrashed him in the eighth frame to earn a deserving title.

The Amateur World Champion won with frame scores of 121-6, 87-37, 74-0, 126-6, 79-5, 12-69, 29-76 and 91-13. He will make history next season as the first professional snooker player from Iran and will be eligible to compete in all ranking events, starting with the Wuxi Classic qualifiers in early June.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 10^th, 2012.