All to play for as only four players remain

No clear favourites as semi-finals feature three former amateur world champions

KARACHI:

Former IBSF World Champion and ex 6-Red Asian Champion Mohammad Asif will play Chinese sensation and current amateur IBSF World Champion Yan Bingtao of China in the IBSF World 6-Red semi-final on Tuesday, while the other last-four match will be played between Pakistan’s Asjad Iqbal and Indian professional player Pankaj Advani.

Advani is also a former IBSF World Champion, which means three out of the four semi-finalists have tasted success at the Amateur World Championship. All four semi-finalists have qualified for the World 6-Red Sangsom Bangkok event.

Asif, Asjad through to last-four

Asif beat compatriot Shahram Changezi 5-3, while Asjad triumphed 5-1 against India’s Manan Chandra in the best-of-nine-frames matches.

Asif hit the blocks running to take a two-frame lead but Shahram hit back to make it 2-2. Shahram then threatened to break away when he won the fifth frame as well, his third on the trot, to lead for the first time in the match. However, Asif came back, and after taking the lead again, ensured that there were no more surprises in the tie, winning by a scoreline of 59-14, 41-26, 00-59, 01-47, 33-35, 55-06, 35-15 and 81-03.



Asif was understandably delighted with the victory and hoped that he would be able to claim the title at home. “I’ve come very close to winning this title and I would try my best to grab this opportunity,” Asif told The Express Tribune. “The semi-final line-up is really explosive and I’m happy that Pakistanis have performed well so far. Now, the aim is to deliver the title for Pakistan at home.”

Meanwhile, Asjad won with scores of 44-23, 06-63, 59-09, 63-07, 44-00 and 51-19.

Yan got the better of Pakistan’s Mohammad Bilal with a 5-3 win, while Advani beat Afghanistan’s Mohammad Rais 5-2.

Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association (PBSA) President Alamgir Sheikh is delighted to have a power-packed line-up for the last four.

“You can’t ask for a better line-up for the semi-finals of the World 6-Red, with three former champions in it,” said Sheikh. “It’s going to be tough for Asif, Asjad, Advani and Yan because all of them are really good players. 6-Red is a very unforgiving format and any player can win on his day. Hopefully, a Pakistan player would lift the title.”

Last-16 results

Earlier in the last-16, Asif beat UAE’s Mohamed Shehab 5-3 to become only the second player in the competition to score a perfect 75 after Asjad.

Asif was 0-2 down initially but came back in style to win by scores of 28-42, 23-44, 23-31, 69-0(69), 81-0(75), 50-14, 33-12 and 34-24.

Asjad defeated India’s Varun Kumar 5-3, while Shahram Changezi won with a similar scoreline against compatriot Shahid Aftab.

Yan got the better of Malaysian Kok Leong Lim 5-2 with an overall score of 58-06, 0-59, 42-0, 28-15, 0-45, 69-0 and 57-01, while Advani thumped Pakistan’s Babar Masih 5-1 in a one-sided match by 04-32, 66-0(66), 69-0(69), 41-30, 67-(67) and 70-0.

India’s Manan Chandra and Pakistan’s Mohammad Bilal recorded 5-0 straight-frame victories against Iran’s Soheil Vahedi and Bahrain’s Habib Subha respectively.

Two Indian female players into the semis

India’s Vidya Pillai and Amee Kamani qualified for the last-four of the Women’s 6-Red event where they will be joined by Hong Kong’s Ng On-Yee and Philippines’ Denis Santos.

Pillai won a seven-set thriller against Latvia’s Tatjana Vasiljevaby scores of 33-21, 13-42, 14-50, 21-31, 45-0, 44-0 and 43-21, while Ng On-Yee beat India’s Arantxa Sanchis 4-0 by 44-0, 26-07, 63-08 and 38-26.

Meanwhile, Kamani made light work of Philippines’s Floriza Andal winning
4-1 by 40-08, 44-10, 47-17, 05-41 and 45-0 and Denis thumped India’s Chitra Magimairajan 4-0.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 11^th,  2015.

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