Majid Ali marches in U21 quarters

Asian junior’s runner-up to face Amir Tariq in last eight.

KARACHI:

In a clash of the fancied young guns, Asian U21 Championship runner-up Mohammad Majid Ali will be up against Amir Tariq in the quarter-finals of Jubilee Insurance 6th National Junior U21 Snooker Championship.

In other last eight matches, talented cueist Hamza Akbar will vie with Mohammad Rafiq for a place in semi-finals. Abdul Raheem will clash with Haris Nadeem, while Noman Iqbal and Mohammad Faheem will fight for a spot in the last-four.

Nadeem registered an impressive and unexpected 4-2 win over Hunain Amir despite trailing by 0-2 at one stage of the match. It was a really close fight between the two in the first four frames of the match, which could have gone anyway.

However, it was Nadeem, who had the last laugh as he registered a 41-63, 56-59, 67-43, 55-48, 55-18 and 96(84)-16 win.

Hamza had to work hard to move into quarters, he dropped two frames before winning 4-2 against Mohammad Fahad Khan by 11-73, 71-60, 81-24, 22-55, 102-29 and 73-10.

Tariq proved too good against Junaid Babar, completing a 4-0 rout with ease while Mohammad Rafiq triumphed 4-1 against Mohammad Ibrahim, the score read 55-29, 44-58, 56-47, 82-14 and 101-29.

‘Hope to end event on a good note’

Majid, who remains Pakistan’s best young player, defeated Saifullah 4-1. Majid won the first-frame after a close battle only to see his opponent draw parity.

The international player claimed the next three frames to record an impressive win, the final score read 59-41, 53-87, 63-31, 65-13 and 98-0 in his favour.

“I’ve been enjoying a good tournament so far and I want to end it on a good note,” Majid told The Express Tribune.

“Winning any tournament is important for gaining confidence and that’s also the case with me.”

In the last two matches of the day Abdul Raheem won in straight frames against Shariq Ali while Noman Iqbal won 4-2 against Usman Khan.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2014.

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