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| January 29, 2002 | Tuesday | Ziqa’ad 14, 1422 |
Top seed Khurram sounds warning
KARACHI, Jan 28: Top seed Khurram Hussain Agha sounded a stern warning to the other competitors when he chalked up a magnificent break of 107 in his 4-0 drubbing of Kashif Khan at the Red & White National Snooker Championship at the KPT Sports Complex.
Then taking on Aamir Sikander in his second match in Group A, Khurram registering a break of 51 in the third frame, emerged the victor by a 4-1 margin. Earlier young Aamir scored 43 points on the trot in the second frame, but lost his opening match to Faiq Malik from Punjab 4-2 after leading 2-1 at one stage of the game, Aamir has a steep mountain to climb to reach the last 16.
Second seed Naveen Perwani, helped on with breaks of 38 and 46, breezed past NWFP’s Inam ur Rehman 4-0. At the time of writing Naveen playing his second match against Punjab Cup champion Fahad Asif, was leading 3-2 with breaks of 36, 54 and 40. Fahad refusing to surrender in a hurry, had breaks of 36 and 35 in the opening and fourth frames.
Third seed Farhan Mirza after beating Sindh’s Salman Sheikh 4-2, assisted with breaks of 56, 62, 56, was trailing 1-2 behind Punjab’s Raja Rasheed. Salman putting up stiff resistance had breaks of 35 and 45.
The defending champion Mohammad Yousuf, winning this title for a record 11th time, but now sliding down the rankings to No.4, beat the young cueist from Larkana, Mohammad Amin 4-1, with breaks of 49 and 44.
Amin playing in his first national tournament replied with a break of 64 in the fourth frame. Then in his second encounter, this time with Danish Haroon, the defending champion was leading 3-0.
Fifth seed Imran Shehzad from Punjab registered 93, the second highest break of the tournament to date, as he snuffed out counterpart Humayun Khursheed 4-0. Imran then went on to overcome the likes of another Punjab player Hassan Shuja 4-2, after having a quick break of 66 in the opening frame.
The tournament favourite and sixth seed Saleh Mohammad blasted Khurram Khan from Punjab 4-0 and had another 4-0 victory over the burly Mohammad Siddiq from Balochistan, with splendid breaks of 49, 44, 55 and 61.
Seventh seed Minhas Malik received an early setback when he went down 3-4 to Punjab’s Azeem Akhtar, but winning his second match 4-2 against Faisal Essa, he was now in a batter frame of mind.
The eighth seed Atiq Latif Baksh was sitting pretty with a 4-1 triumphs over veteran Mohammad Aslam and Shadab Baig. Shahdab, the former Sindh Cup champion began his quest for the title on a poor note, losing his earlier match also to the ninth seed Shakeel Bhatti 1-4.
Bearded Shakeel on the other hand got off to a fine start winning his second match against Punjab youngster Farhan Noor 4-2.
The same could be said about Punjab’s 10th seed Saqib Butt, who beat Irfan Rasheed Khan in a 4-3 thriller and then accounted for Faisal Essa 4-2.
Earlier Irfan was handed out a 4-0 defeat by soft spoken Aneel Bherwani, back in the circuit after a two year lapse.
Bespectacled 11th seed Amit Perwani downed Mohammad Siddiq 4-1, sounding a break of 56 in the first frame and then sent left-hander Vishan Gir crashing to a 4-2 defeat, assisted with a break of 48 in the fifth frame. However, Vishan with a stunning break of 74, in his opening match, ended the pretensions of Nadir Khan 4-2.
NWFP’s 12th seed Arifullah had two wins on the trot, beating Hasan Shuja 4-0 and Balochistan’s Mustafa Hyder 4-3.
Former Pakistan No.2 Younus Amir Baksh from the KPT had mixed fortunes. After beating Rana Rasheed 4-2, he bowed out to A. Qadeer Butt in a 4-3 thriller after trailing 1-3 at one stage of the game. Qadeer then went on to earn another victory beating NWFP’s celebrated cueist Rambel Gul also by a 4-3 margin.
Balochistan Cup runner-up Kamran Shah beat Punjab’s Atif Mughal 4-3, but went down 2-4 to M. Faiq Malik, even after he registered a fine break of 54. Noman Awan, a talented cueist from the NWFP, beat Mohammad Nazir 4-1, but went down 4-3 to Inam ur Rehman, after recovering from a 0-2 deficit to take over the lead 3-2.
Another cueist from the NWFP Shah Khan registering a 104 break in the qualifiers at the Indus Club, lost both his matches, going down 0-4 to Ahmer Shaikh and then losing again this time 3-4 to Mohammad Amin.
Former International Ahmed Bawany determined to make an impact in this tournament began his campaign on a wrong note, sliding down 3-4 to Punjab youngster Farhan Noor.
Balochistan Cup champion Mustafa Hyder, losing his second match, kept his slim chances alive of reaching the last 16 from his Group after beating Raees Khan 4-1.
The third day’s matches begin from 11.00 a.m.
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