Majid books place in last-16

Pakistan cueist records fourth successive win at U21 Asian event.

KARACHI:

Mohammad Majid Ali booked a spot in the knockout stage of the 14th Asian U21 Snooker Championship after registering two wins at the Indore Tennis Club in India yesterday.

Majid, who lost his tournament opener, recorded his fourth successive victory and progressed to the last-16.

In his first outing, Majid was ruthless in his approach on the table as he won the opening three frames to put Myanmar’s Maung Maung on the back foot. However, the Myanmar player made a comeback in the fourth and fifth frames before Majid halted his recovery to seal the game.

Majid won with frame scores of 92-57, 55-13, 68-25, 15-63, 64-67 and 84-47.

However, his second match on the day was a far closer affair as he pipped Hong Kongs’s Leong Nanhoi 4-3 despite trailing 3-2.

Majid eventually triumphed with frame scores of 67-29, 25-74, 69-05, 12-66, 29-69, 73-26 and 80-00.

The 19-year-old cueist had earlier been beaten by China’s Zhou Yelong in his first match before he found his rhythm to prevail over Thailand’s Boonyarit Keattikul and India’s Nitesh Madan.

Majid’s teammate Humza Akbar, meanwhile, made a miraculous recovery to win his second match of the event, defeating Thailand’s Ratchayothin Yotharuck 4-3 despite being virtually down and out earlier in the contest.

After trailing 3-0 at one stage, Humza, who was crowned Pakistan’s youngest national champion last month, won four straight frames to seal the win 39-86, 00-135 (135), 01-66,105-01,103-29, 62-10 and 76-43.

His opponent also hit the highest break of the event of 135 but could not stop the young Pakistani from edging past him.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th, 2013.