Asif, Shahid reach knockout round

Defending champion and top seed Mohammad Asif and third seed Shahid Aftab consolidated their positions for making it to the knockout round of the NBP 46th National Snooker Championship here at the bank's sports complex.

Drawn in group 'A', four-time national champion Asif won back-to-back matches to stay unbeaten in four outings so far. First, he trounced Owaisullah of Punjab 4-1 (92-18, 75-5, 1598, 68-9, 78-54) and then outplayed Balochistan's Abdul Qadir Ashir 72-34, 80-0, 67-9, 92-0. Asif, 39, who is also a two-time world champion, is yet to play two more games to complete his league engagements.

Shahid, a former national champion, drubbed Waqar Ahmed of Islamabad 4-1 to stretch his winning sequence in group 'C'. He was home 91-27, 91-28, 69-36, 1-93, 71-42.

Having lost the first two matches, former national champion and second seed Mohammad Sajjad recovered to win two fixtures on Monday. Sajjad first inflicted straight defeat upon Mohammad Iftekhar 60-25, 57-39, 72-14, 66-32 and then overwhelmed Sharjeel Mehmood 87-15, 63-57, 73-25, 85-66.

Ali Hamza, a qualifier from Sindh, shocked fourth seed Mohammad Bilal 4-2 (45-55, 80-28, 90-33, 6278, 37-14, 73-0).

In yet another upset, low-profile Saad Khan blanked reigning Asian team champion Zulfiqar A. Qadir 63-49, 49-16, 67-51, 73-19.

It may be mentioned that Zulfiqar paired with Babar Masih to win the 2019 Asian team title at Doha and the event has not taken place since then due to Covid-19 pandemic.

Mohammad Ijaz hammered the only century break (105) of the day while routing Hiskail Bilal 4-1 (88-27, 32-87, 86-8, 65-22, 106-0).