Majid cruises into snooker event final

Pakistan cueist excels in U21 Asian Championship.

KARACHI:

Pakistan’s Muhammad Majid Ali advanced to the final of the 14th Asian U21 Snooker Championship where he will lock horns with Thailand’s Noppon Saengkham today at the Indore Tennis Club, India.

Both semi-finals turned out to be one-sided contests as Majid defeated China’s Zhu Yinghui 5-1 with frame scores of 69-39, 60-48, 92(92)-34, 0-101(101), 68-48 and 76-36, while Noppon beat Thailand’s Ratchayothin Yotharuck 5-0.

IBSF world champion Mohammad Asif said he expected a tough final but was confident that Majid would emerge the winner.

“It will be a tough encounter but I’m confident Majid can win the event since he has it in him to become the U21 Asian champion,” Asif told The Express Tribune.

“Noppon has decent experience under his belt but the way Majid has improved in the last few months, he can certainly defeat him. Majid doesn’t take too much pressure and has the nerves to prevail in a crunch encounter.”

In the quarter-final, Majid beat China’s Lu Ning 5-2.

Majid won with frame scores of 76-26, 26-81, 19-76, 77-28, 77-48, 66-29 and 94-00.

In the previous edition of the event, Majid was defeated in the last-16 by India’s Laxmat Rawat, who won 4-3 while Hunain Amir also failed to go past the last-16 phase as he was defeated by Iran’s Mohammad Lababi with a similar scoreline.

Contrary to the last event, Majid has been impressive ever since he lost his opening match of the event. He defeated India’s Malkeet Singh 4-3 in their last-16 crunch match to move a step closer to glory.

Earlier, Majid had won four out of five matches he played in Group D.

Teammate Humza Akbar had earlier crashed out in the last-16 phase after going down to China’s Zhou Yelong.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2013.