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| January 30, 2002 | Wednesday | Ziqa’ad 15, 1422 |
Humiliating defeats for Farhan, Atiq
KARACHI, Jan 29: Third seed Farhan Mirza and No.8 seed Atiq Latif Baksh suffered humiliating defeats in the qualifying rounds of the Red & White National Snooker Championship played Tuesday.
Farhan after losing the first two frames to Punjab youngster Raja Rashid, rallied splendidly with breaks of 36, 54 and 40 to took over the lead 3-2. But suddenly Farhan’s game once again went to pieces and Raja potting splendidly took the next two frames 63/9, 60/28 to win 4-3.
However, in his third match, Farhan was at his best outclassing Rambel Gul 4-0.
Atiq who won both his opening fixtures ran aground facing Ahmed Bawany. Bawany with one win and one defeat, improved his chances of qualifying for the last 16, when he downed Atiq 4-0.
Bawany has one more hurdle to clear when he meets the bearded Shakeel Bhatti who registered his third triumph in a row after a 4-1 success over Mohammad Aslam.
The No. 2 seed Naveen Perwani and Salah Mohammad, had to fight their way out to register identical 4-3 victories.
Naveen meeting the Punjab Cup champion Fahad Asif was leading 3-1, with fine breaks of 36, 54 and 40. Fahad levelled the scores 3-3, helped on with breaks of 35 and 36, but lost the final frame 74/47.
Naveen kept his slate clean in Group B downing NWFP’s Noman Awan 4-1. Noman tasting his third defeat in a row saw his chances of qualifying for the pre-quarterfinals disappear.
Favourite Saleh in a see-saw encounter with counterpart Nadir Khan, 1-1 and 2-2, was in a spot of bother when his gusty rival took over the lead 3-2. In a last gasp effort, Saleh picked up the next two frames to come through a narrow 4-1 winner from Group F.
Amit Perwani, later shared the top spot with Saleh in the Group after he humbled Khurram Khan 4-0 which included a break of 57 in the final framey.
Arifullah, the 12th seed from the NWFP, was another player to register his third successive win, beating off the challenge of Punjab’s Humayun Sheikh 4-1.
Also making his presence felt in Group F is the left-handed youngster Vishan Gir, a 4-0 winner over Mohammad Siddiq. In a match that went the full distance, Kashif Khan got the