Langnese Ranking Snooker Cup: Back-to-back titles for Asif

Veteran wins second successive event in a month with 8-4 win over Majid

KARACHI: Former IBSF world champion Mohammad Asif earned his second title within a month as he defeated Mohammad Majid Ali 8-4 in the Langnese Snooker Cup final played at the Movenpick Hotel in Karachi on Thursday.

The veteran had won the NBP Ranking Championship last month, beating another experienced cueist Mohammad Sajjad in the decider.

On Thursday, it was 21-year-old Majid who initially seemed to tip the scales in his favour as he won the first, third and fourth frames to build an unexpected 3-1 lead.

However, Asif rallied by winning the fifth frame with a margin of a mere seven points before making the score 3-3 by claiming the next frame.

The Faisalabad-based cueist then went ahead for the first time in the match when he won the seventh frame to go 4-3 up, but Majid soon cut the deficit to tie the game.

But the balance of the match shifted permanently after the ninth frame, which Asif won by just two points. He then swept three consecutive frames to win the match and the title with a scoreline of 69-75, 78-26, 44-57, 31-90, 74-67, 68-20, 66-32, 30-58, 64-62, 87-0, 69-42, 77-14.

“It was an amazing final against a youngster, and Majid proved that his run to the finale wasn’t a fluke,” Asif told The Express Tribune. “It was great to see him play like that. When you’re up against a senior player, you have nothing to lose and that is what Majid enjoyed, whereas the pressure was on me. In all, it was the sort of match I needed before going for the world championship [in Egypt].”

Asif added that his confidence is sky-high after picking up back-to-back trophies in the last 30 days. “I want to win the IBSF World Championship again so that I can qualify for the professional circuit,” he said. “I did get a chance to enrol myself in 2012 after winning the championship in Bulgaria, but I was unable to do so in the given deadline. Hopefully that won’t happen this time if I win.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 6^th, 2015.

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