Sajjad survives scare to stay in contention

Mohammad Sajjad earns a tough 4-3 victory over Mohammad Javed to stay in semi-finals of the Snooker Championship.

KARACHI: Defending champion Mohammad Sajjad earned a tough 4-3 victory over Mohammad Javed to stay in contention for the semi-finals of Snooker Championship underway at the Karachi Club.

With two defeats in the tournament already, Sajjad was stretched fully against Javed who stunned the Sargodha-based cueist with some superb potting during the battle. After claiming the first two frames comfortably with scores of 70-16 and 67-49, Sajjad had to face stiff resistance from his opponent in the following frames. Javed drew level 2-2 by winning the third and fourth frames 62-33 and 53-35.

Sajjad bounced back by winning the fifth frame 79-59, a lead that was soon undone by Javed by winning the penultimate frame 60-53. The final frame saw Sajjad taking full use of his experience to win it 74-16 and seal the win that keeps him in contention for the semi-finals.

Meanwhile, Shehram Changezi who stunned top-ranked cueists earlier in the event continued with his superb form to secure a 4-2 (77-33, 78-45, 04-81, 33-69, 60-16, 65-30) win over Sultan Mohammad.

Top seed Asjad Iqbal, who crashed out of the running for the last-four following three defeats, registered a consolation win by beating Mohammad Asif 4-2 (57-40, 62-30, 80-38, 40-79, 26-92(78), 76-65).

Qasim Kamani, Imran Shehzad, Rambail Gul, Sharjeel Mehmood and Mohammad Asif also recorded victories by winning their respective matches.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2010.