Hamza gives the nation its first Asian champion after 17 years

22-year-old cueist attains glory after beating Indian veteran Advani in the final

KARACHI: At just 22, Hamza Akbar won his first major international title and became the first player from Pakistan to win the Asian Snooker Championship after 17 years, beating high-profile cueist Pankaj Advani of India 7-6 in the final in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The only other Pakistani to win the Asian Championship was former IBSF World Champion Muhammad Yousuf when he won the event in 1998.

Hamza received $7,000 for winning the continental championship, while runner-up Advani bagged $3,500.

“No one expected me to reach the final, let alone win the title,” Hamza told The Express Tribune. “I’m still trying to come to terms with the fact that I just beat probably the strongest player in the competition. Of course I didn’t flag for even a moment, as when I left my room in the morning, the only thought in my mind was to come back as the champion and I feel all the prayers from my family and well-wishers have worked for me.”

It turned out to be an intense battle between the two cueists, who could not have been any more different.

Advani is a former IBSF World Standard and World 6-Red Champion. On the other hand, Hamza’s best achievements were being a losing semi-finalist in the Asian U21 Championship and the Asian 6-Red Championship last year.

 

As it happened

The Faisalabad-based cueist took an early lead, which settled his nerves and increased his confidence. Then started a see-saw encounter, with Hamza leading and Advani catching up until the eighth frame, after which Hamza was leading 5-3 and needed two frames to seal an unexpected victory.

However, with prestige at stake, Advani hit back and levelled the match at 5-5, inflicting a spasm of nervousness on Hamza, according to the player himself.

The Indian player went ahead for the first time in the match when he won the 11th frame to go 6-5 up and was just a single frame away from sealing the win, but Hamza held his failing nerves, dominated two consecutive frames and won by an overall scoreline of 66-28, 32-56, 64-38, 55-34, 17-68, 56-44, 56-63, 66-39, 32-67, 34-62, 10-85, 56-54 and 55-46.

“I had to overcome Advani’s 34-point to win the final frame and the title,” explained Hamza. “It has been an exceptional journey for me; there was a time when I was finding it hard to qualify from the group stage. But having once beaten [former world champion] Muhammad Asif, I knew I could pull off something major.”

 

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