Shehab struggles at West Asian snooker contest

Fujairah While the leading contenders at the Second West Asian Championships lived up to their billing on the opening day on Saturday, UAE’S Mohammad Shehab struggled to cross the first hurdle at the Concorde Fujairah hotel. The defending champion and top seed had a tough time against his old nemesis Mohsin Bukshaisha of Qatar before securing a 43 victory in his first Group A encounter.

Setting the pace at the tournament was none other than the host country’s experienced Mohammad Al Joker, who started his campaign with a resounding 4-0 triumph over Mahmoud Shehab of Yemen in Group D.

While Shehab’s performance was, in his own words ‘below par’, he can draw a few positives from a fourhour marathon match. Initially, he was a pale shadow of the man who captured the gold medal at the 2007 Macau Asian Indoor Games and bronze medal at the 2009 Kaoshiung World Games in the f irst two frames, which he conceded to his rival. But later recovered to take the frame 4-3. Results (singles, first round): Morning session: Mohammad Al Joker (UAE) beat Mahmoud Shehab (Yemen) 4-0; Ehsan Hyderi (Iran) beat Yousuf Al Foori (Oman) 4-0; Mohammad Shehab UAE) beat Mohsin Bukshaisha (Qatar) 4-3; Ahmad Saif (Qatar) beat Khalid Kamali (UAE) 4-2 Afternoon session: Hussain Vafaei (Iran) beat Mohammad Al Shaikh (Bahrain) 4-0; Omar Al Kojah (Syria) beat Kamal Al Dubai (Yemen) 4-0; Habib Subah (Bahrain) beat Ahmad Sarhan (Saudi Arabia) 4-1.