Muhammad Sajjad wins Korat Cup
The houseful Thai crowd witnessed Pakistan National champion win the final of the Korat Cup and end his four year title draught. Muhammad Sajjad is one of the best players and his final win over Thai player Passakorn Suwannawat further cemented his place as one of the best Pakistani cueist to take part in this tournament.
Sajjad after entering the tournament as a wild card entrant managed to defeat former the champion in the semi-final. The final saw the Pakistani sensation playing in best of nine frames final. Sajjad was not only the first Asian wildcard to win a Thai ranking title but was also a second wildcard Asian who managed to make his way to the final.
Sajjad, keeping in mind the Asia Cup defeat in the final, gave it his best from the start of the match. As a result, the Pakistani cueist managed to establish a 3-1 lead after the fourth frame. The Thai however managed to pull off two games and Sajjad’s lead was cut down to 4-3 at the end of the seventh frame. The Thai however saw a glimmer of hope when he tied the match heading into the final frame. He managed to win and be crowned as the Korat Cup champion with a score line of 83-7, 0-98, 86-7, 71-40, 0-96, 18-68, 69-41, 14-78 and 64-31.
Pakistan experienced snooker glory four years ago through a veteran Mohammad Yousuf in Jordon. Yousuf won the Masters title and was the only player in the world to have won the Masters, World Amateur along with the Asian title.
Sajjad secured the opening frame 83-7 that included an amazing break of 64 points. However, the next frame was secured by the Thai in an impressive manner who showed total dominance by scoring 98 points with Sajjad forfeiting the game. The fifth and sixth frames saw the Thai winning the frames with a score of 96-0 and 68-18. The dominating frames from the Thai included breaks of 92 and 68 respectively.
At the end of the eighth frame, the score had reached 4-4 and it was all set for an exciting final frame. The final frame was won by Sajjad with a score of 64-31.
Sajjad bagged a handsome amount of 100,000 Baht as the prize money and had won 15,000 baht for appearance.
Tags: