Majid through to quarters

Teammate Humza crashes out of U21 Asian Snooker Championship.

KARACHI: Pakistan cueist Muhammad Majid Ali made it to the quarter-finals of the 14th Asian U21 Snooker Championship after beating India’s Malkeet Singh 4-3 in their last-16 match at the Indore Tennis Club, India.

Majid, trailing 3-2, held his nerves to eventually clinch the prequarter-final with frame scores of 79-48, 44-70, 62-09, 08-73, 51-77, 84-19 and 65-22.

The 19-year-old will now face China’s Lu Ning, who beat India Rahul Sachdev 4-2 with frame scores of 86-08, 0-103, 88-46, 45-79, 69-15 and 74-45.

Majid won four out of his five matches in the group stage. His lone defeat came at the hands of China’s Zhou Yelong 4-1 in his tournament opener.

Humza bows out

Meanwhile, his compatriot Humza Akbar crashed out of the knockout stages after succumbing to Zhou 4-2.

The China cueist piled on the pressure on Humza and did not even let the Pakistan player open his account in the opening two frames.

Zhou completed the emphatic win with frame scores of 102(102)-0, 87-0, 48-77, 32-69, 82-01 and 73-22, including a break of 102 in the opening game.

Humza, who was recently crowned Pakistan’s youngest national champion after appearing in his maiden tournament, won two of his four group matches.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 6^th, 2013.