6-Red World Championship: Pakistan cueists crash out in Thailand

Asif, Sajjad falter at last-16 stage, Asjad fails to progress past last-32.

KARACHI: The trio of Pakistan cueists — Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Sajjad and Asjad Iqbal — all bowed out of the SangSom 6-Red World Championship in Thailand, with the former two making their exits in the last-16 while Asjad failed to progress past the last-32 stage.

It was a one-sided affair in Asif’s match against Hong Kong’s Marco Fu as, who dominated almost the entire game after conceding the first frame. Marco ended the encounter with a comprehensive 6-2 win and a scoreline of 1-39, 64-0(64), 34-31, 37-0, 47-0, 44-0, 0-71(71) and 50-0.

Asif had earlier registered a thumping 6-2 win over Thailand’s Tanawat Tirapongpaiboon in the last-32 by scores of 69-0 (69), 19-56, 39-23, 50-0, 37-20, 36-20, 1-38 and 41-0.

Meanwhile Sajjad, who had beaten former world champion John Higgins on his way to the knockout stage, went down against England’s Mark Selby 6-2 in his last-16 clash.



Just like compatriot Asif, Sajjad took a 1-0 lead which had no significance on the outcome of the match as Selby won by a scoreline of 0-63 (63), 46-09, 39-29, 49-12, 41-27, 22-34, 58-17 and 39-0.

Sajjad had earlier defeated Scotland’s Graeme Dott 6-3 in the last-32 with a scoreline reading 20-50, 49-0, 1-40, 48-21, 15-44, 37-7, 49-36, 51-17 and 35-4 in his favour.

In Asjad’s last-32 encounter, the Pakistani threw away his chance to progress into the last-16 by losing 6-3 against Wales’ Ryan Day despite leading 2-0 initially. Day won by a scoreline of 0-75(71), 0-76 (66), 37-16, 36-29, 71-0 (71), 0-46, 65-0 (65), 50-0 (50) and 72-0.

Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association (PBSA) President Alamgir Sheikh said that although he was proud of the performances by the cueists, he felt they should have done better.

“Overall Asif and Sajjad played really well against top professional players from around the world so I’m very happy for them,” Sheikh told The Express Tribune. “Both could have progressed to the quarter-finals but 6-Red is an unforgiving format — one mistake can cost you the match in a blink of any eye.”

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

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