Muhammad Sajjad, Imran Shehzad, Muhammad Shahid Aftab shine at 27th Asian snooker Championship
Pakistani cuemen Muhammad Sajjad, Imran Shehzad and Muhammad Shahid Aftab are in a strong position in their respective groups after three days of the ongoing 27th Asian Snooker Championship 2011 at the Yashwant Club in Indore, India.
The Pakistani trio played brilliantly on the third day of the championship and clinched their matches against Ali Mohsen Khamis from Qatar, Mubarak Ali Owais of Kuwait and India’s Manan Chandra comprehensively.
The Asian number two Sajjad went 0-2 down to Qatari cueman Khamis early in the best-of-six frames match but somehow gathered himself in the later part of the game. He bounced back superbly clinching four consecutive frame wins to grab the victory at 4-2
with frame scores of 24-67, 50-59, 67-17, 94-31, 86-04 and 73-25.
The top seed Sajjad from Sargodha held a strong position right from the start of the event after beating Iraq’s Ahmed Hassan Hadi in his opening match with the score line of 4-1. The 2010 runner-up Sajjad is now leading Group A with successive victories
in the tournament.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s number two Imran Shehzad also extended his unbeaten streak in the tournament after crushing Kuwait’s Mubarak Ali Owais at 4-1 with frame scores of 56-23, 74-09, 68-16, 46-59 and 53-35. Shahzad had whitewashed Michaal Angelo Mengario
tremendously in his opening match.
However, the third cueman from Pakistan, Muhammad Shahid Aftab could not live up to the expectations in his opening match as he lost to Muhammad Rais Senzahi of Afghanistan. However, he bounced back against the Indian Manan Chandra and defeated him superbly
4-2 on day three.
The Faisalabad-based Aftab grabbed a 3-0 early lead against Chandra as he clinched the first three frames with a couple of decent small breaks to get off the mark with frame scores of 85-15, 67-34 and 58-37. Chandra somehow fought back and took back-to-back
frames with 36-64 and 34-54 to move within one frame to pull level but Aftab broke his opponent’s hopes and took the sixth frame with a one-point margin at 58-57 after a thrilling display.
The 27th Asian Snooker Championship will end on Saturday, April 30, 2011. The event is being played on round-robin basis in which 44 players representing 19 countries are divided into eight groups. Each group will feature two top players who will
qualify for the quarter-final stage of the event.
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