|
|
| October 24, 2002 | Thursday | Sha’aban 17,1423 |
Saleh crushes veteran Collins
CAIRO, Oct 23: Pakistan’s Saleh Muhammad handed a crushing straight frames thrashing to veteran Tom Collins of the United States in the 2002 World Snooker Championship here Tuesday.
Peshawar’s Saleh made two breaks of 66 and 57 on his way to 95-31, 134-04, 111-07, 76-28 triumphs against Collins to record his third win in four matches in pool “C”.
Saleh produced superb potting and break-building to down 67-year- old Collins, who is playing his tenth world championship.
Seventh seed Khurram’s fourth match against Belgian Nico Devlies was tied 3-3 all and was postponed till late in the night after the last session due to lack of time in the afternoon session.
Khurram made a dream start in the match by gaining a commanding 3-1. But his opponent fought back to draw level by snatching the next two frames to take match into 7th frame decider.
Khurram making breaks of 24 and 21 secured the first frame 64-06. Delvies, however leveled the terms by taking the second 72-49 after the Khurram white ball went into the pocket as he had potted the green ball.
Third frame saw Nico Devlies taking early 48 points lead. But Khurram came from behind to take the frame 61-49 thanks a fine break of 33. Demonstrating good cue control and break-building Khurram took the fourth frame 79-16 with the aid break of 64. With two red balls on the table Nico surrendered the frame.
Looking a bit of overconfident Khurram played adventurous shots to allowed his opponent to bounce back into the game. Nico took the fifth frame 61-06 including a break of 30 and leveled the score 3-3 by grabbing frame number six 70-27.
On Thursday Khurram Agha will take on Singaporean Lim Chun Kiat and Saleh Muhammad Sultan Sami l-Emran of Saudi Arabia.
The day three of the championship saw Egypt’s Wael Talaat rose to limelight by registering tournament’s highest break of 130 in his 4-0 victory Germany’s Sasche Lippe.
Wael smashed the break in third frame to post his third win. This was the 13th century break in the event sofar.
China 15-year-old teenage sensastion Ding Junhui despite stamoch ailment scored an easy 4-0 win over Ahmed Haitham of Saudi Arabia. The Chinese won the match with 396-49 aggregate against the Saudi cueist.
Ding, a world under-21 champion who also won this year’s Asian championship and Asian Games gold in Busan is tipped as one of the favorites for the prestigious world crown.—APP
|
|
|
