IBSF World Championship: Pakistan cueists cruise to knock-out stage

All four players continue impressive run in Latvia.

KARACHI: All four Pakistani cueists have stormed into the knock-out stage of the ongoing IBSF World Championship. Defending champion Mohammad Asif continued his scintillating run in the event, winning his fourth consecutive match as he beat Turkey’s Ismail Turker 4-1.

Asif had been in prolific form and has looked unassailable in the event thus far, taking his unbeaten streak to an impressive 14 matches.

The cueist, who hails from Faisalabad, was a frame down initially, but was at his fluent best as he soon hit back hard to win a successive four frames to seal an emphatic win with scores of 19-76, 64-11, 88-08(51), 76-16 and 72-36.



Asif has now won four out of four matches in Group A and is set to advance into next round from the seven-man group.

Another man who is showing form is Mohammad Sajjad, who thrashed Switzerland’s Darren Paris in straight frames while registering a 115-point break.

Paris found it hard to open up any opportunities against a top quality opponent and such was the dominance of Sajjad in the match that his opponent could only accumulate 28 points in four frames.

Sajjad’s destruction of Paris can be gauged by scores of 74-10, 93-01(93), 69-17 and 115-0(115). He too has won four matches thus far.

Other Pakistani players, Shahid Aftab and Imran Shehzad have won the three matches they have played as of yet.

“If the players win all their matches, they’ll qualify for the last-64, but they have already managed to make it to the knockout stage,” a PBSA official told The Express Tribune.

“Even if they lose some of their matches, they’ll still play in the last-94 so they are guaranteed a place in the knockout stage.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 3^rd, 2013.

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