Sajjad, makes his way to the final
Pakistani cueist Mohammad Sajjad leaped into the final of the 26th Asian Snooker Championship 2010 by hammering out one of the local favourites, Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon, in the semi-finals on Friday in the Asian Championship in Thailand. It was an unexpected and tremendous victory for the Pakistani youngster as this is his third participation in the Asian championship. The opponent had a benefit of being one the home town favourites as well. Coming from the small town of Sargodha, Sajjad has been able to quickly make his mark in the snooker world by his brilliant performances.
Sajjad got off to a brilliant start when he stamped out a dazzling break of 104 in the first frame to put his fancied opponent under pressure and added the second with yet another break of 59. Nevertheless, Paiboon came back powerfully and picked up the third frame. Sajjad continued playing neatly and inflamed his lead to 3-1 by snatching the fourth frame.
The current national champion, who has gone this far in the Asian Championship for the first time in his brief career, is the second from the same land to have ever entered the final match. The only Pakistani snooker player who reached the finals was Mohammad Yousuf, the most famous Pakistani snooker player. Yousuf gave Pakistan its first ever crown in the 1998 Asian gala in his hometown of Karachi, Pakistan. He is an internationally recognised amateur snooker player and one of the most successful players to come from this land. In 1994, Yousuf defeated Iceland’s Johannes R. Johannesson 11-9, at the IBSF World Snooker Championship, to become the IBSF World Snooker Champion.
Sajjad, the rising new star of Pakistan snooker, portrayed splendid abilities during the match. He crashed his fourth century break of the tournament in the very first frame to kick off his campaign in the semi-finals which he went on to win 6-3 with frame scores of 105-1, 84-4, 0-92, 82-47, 34-70, 17-101, 88-21, 62-26, 72-33. The storming Pakistani cueist also holds the record of firing the highest century breaks in the competition (134) which helped him enter the final.
The teenaged Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon was being greeted as one of the most promising lad having gone all the way to the semi finals where Sajjad sunk his hopes of attaining the continental crown in the very first go.
Earlier in the pre-quarter finals Sajjad defeated Lee Chun Wai of Hong Kong with a hard earned 4-3 win 25-70, 21-78, 79-43, 52-50, 76-62, 50-64, 59-37. This highly talented player emerged on the national scene in 2008 when he became the Pakistan champion.
His rival in the best of 11-frame final to be played on Saturday in Thailand’s town of Chanthaburi would be another local player Issara Kachaiwong. He beat Yasin Merchant of India in the other semi-final of the tournament.
Issara Kachaiwong kept Thailand’s expectations of walking off with the title once more alive when he overcame the immensely experienced Indian cueist, Yasin Merchant, in the other semi-final with a score of 6-2. He ended the match with a final scoreline of 46-75, 69-65, 56-27, 105-13, 100-10, 0-80, 67-28, 66-44.
Asjad Iqbal, the second Pakistani cueist had earlier been beaten in the quarter-finals. He lost to Sittihead Sackbiang of Laos, who won the 7-frame encounter 4-1 with frame scores of 78-37, 12-78, 83-2, 73-9, 95-38.
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