KARACHI, Sept 17: Gritty left-hander Vishan Gir, after being humiliated by a 4-1 defeat against Imran Shahzad, bounced back into contention, by winning his next three matches with effortless ease, in the 16th Red & White Latif Masters snooker tournament at Karachi Club Tuesday.

Refusing to be hampered by this defeat, Vishan made his progress towards a semifinal berth by lowering the colours of eighth seed Minhas Malik 4-1, top seed Khurram Hussain Agha 4-1 and fourth seeded Naveen Parwani, also by a 4-1 margin to hand the PIA cueist with his first defeat in the tournament todate.

Second seed Saleh Mohammad receiving a walk-over in his opening round, had a severe setback losing to Punjab’s M. Faiq Malik 4-3. But the confident Pathan beat his next two rivals Shakeel Bhatti 4-2 and 10th seed Amit Parwani 4-0, to keep his chances very much alive of qualifying for the last four.

Top seeded Khurram Hussain Agha, after his hurricane start with 4-0 victories over Punjab’s Mohammad Nazir and Sindh’s Ahmer Shaikh, was brought down to earth with a 4-1 defeat against Vishan Gir. However, Khurram soon regained his composure and with another devastating performance, humbled ninth seed Arifullah 4-0.

Third seed and former world and Asian amateur snooker champion Mohammad Yousuf, moving smoothly ahead in his first three matches, was beaten by Shakeel Bhatti by a 4-2 margin. Yousuf chalked up a break of 59, but it was not enough, with Shakeel storming back with breaks of 40, 48 and 46 in the fourth, fifth and final frames.

This was the second time Shakeel has beaten Yousuf in a Red & White ranking tournament. The last time was at the KPT Sports Complex last year.

Although Naveen dropped a match on Tuesday evening, he is still very much in the running for a berth in the semi-finals, with a 4-0 win over Ahmer Shaikh and a 4-1 victory over Arifullah.

Also in the run for last four spots were fifth seed Imran Shahzad and seventh seed Atiq Latif Bux, son of Late Latif Amir Bux, in whose memory this tournament is staged for the last 16 years.

Imran after beating Vishan, was shocked 4-2 by Arifullah on Monday evening, but then beat Punjab’s Mohammad Nazir 4-2 and Minhas Malik 4-1.

Atiq on the other hand beat Amit Parwani in a 4-3 thriller, then lost to Shakeel Bhatti 3-4 in another thriller on the opening day. He then went on to beat M. Faiq Malik 4-2 and was awarded a walkover against sixth seed Farhan Mirza, when the former National and junior champion failed to turn up at the venue for his matches.

Farhan, who is presently in Sweden, however informed the Pakistan Billiard and Snooker Association (PBSA), that he was involved in an accident there. Also missing form the tournament is Punjab’s Fahad Asif, who according to information received is in England.

Only the top 16 cueists in the PBSA ranking, is participating in this prestigious tournament which has been divided into two pools consisting of eight players each. The first two cueists from each pool qualify for best-of-11 frames semifinals on Friday.

The final is scheduled for Saturday which will be decided in the best of 13 frames.

The third’s day’s matches resume at the Karachi Club from 10.00am.

Results:

Atiq Latif Bux (Sindh) beat M. Faiq Malik (Punjab) 4-2: 73/14, 43/82, 53/31, 57/22, 31/67, 69/19. Mohammad Yousuf (Sindh) beat Amit Parwani (Sindh) 4-1: 59/12, 106/1, 86/12, 52/76, 68/42. Saleh Mohammad (NWFP) beat Shakeel Bhatti (Sindh) 4-2: 98/28, 7/65, 77/53, 65/19, 10/78, 79/4. Naveen Perwani (Sindh) beat Arifullah (NWFP) 4-1: 69/13, 54/7, 79/12, 25/65, 60/49. Vishan Gir (Sindh) beat Khurram Hussain Agha 4-1: 76/39, 64/22, 60/18, 26/66, 65/35. Imran Shahzad (Punjab) beat Mohammad Nazir (Punjab) 4-2: 51/58, 66/35, 74/13, 61/63, 75/0, 76/9. Shakeel Bhatti (Sindh) beat Mohammad Yousuf (Sindh) 4-3: 71/6, 36/40, 8/75, 65/47, 85/23, 20/69, 56/16. Saleh Mohammad (NWFP) beat Amit Parwani (Sindh) 4-0: 83/10, 86/42, 82/11, 55/15. Vishan Gir (Sindh) beat Naveen Perwani (Sindh) 4-1: 116/14, 56/55, 35/77, 57/23, 68/50. Khurram Hussain Agha (Sindh) beat Arifullah (NWFP) 4-0: 78/27, 65/56, 70/62, 65/26. Imran Shahzad (Punjab) beat Minhas Malik (Sindh) 4-1: 78/29, 24/79, 81/22, 56/53, 67/26. Walk-over awarded in favour of Minhas Malik (Sindh) against Ahmer Shaikh (Sindh). Walk-over awarded in favour of M. Faiq Malik (Punjab) against Fahid Asif (Punjab). Walk-over awarded to Atiq Latif Bux (Sindh) against Farhan Mirza (Punjab). Walk-over awarded in favour of Mohammad Nazir (Punjab) against Ahmer Shaikh (Sindh).