May 26, 2003	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 23,1424

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KARACHI, May 25: Fourth seed Naveen Perwani, winning his first two matches in style by 4-0 margins, came close to being derailed, before winning an intriguing seven frame battle against unseeded Ahmer Shaikh, on the third day of the qualifying rounds of 7th Red and White Style Snooker Championship played at Karachi Gymkhana Billiards Hall on Sunday.

A veteran of two world and four Asian championships, Naveen faced a strong challenge in pool “D” before cruising to victory in a nail-biting finish played in a pin drop silence with a parting break of 50 points.

Mukhtar Khan, ranked 40th in Pakistan produced a sterling show to surprise ninth Minhas Malik after an exciting six frame contest.

Rambel Gul the young cueist from the NWFP, caused the other upset by beating 8th seed Shakeel Bhatti 4-1. This was the second successive defeat suffered by Shakeel, who went down against Imran Mughal on Saturday and will have to win his remaining matches by handsome margins if he is to survive and reach the last 16.

The top two seeds Khurram Agha and Muhammad Yousuf registered identical 4-0 triumphs to maintain their winning spree, while third seed and defending champion Saleh Mohammad dropped his first frame in the tournament, bemused at losing the first frame 6/58, to Sindh’s Salman Shiekh before pulling away a 4-1 victory.

Khurram, stretched to the limits by Saqib Butt on Saturday, returned to top form, handing out a straight frames drubbing to Raja Rashid from Rawalpindi.

Yousuf accounted for Faisal Essa 4-0, chalking up a useful break of 52 in the final frame.

Young and talented Atiq Latif Bux seeded sixth, dropped the second frame but raced to victory taking three frames on the trot against Shadab Baig, to chalk up his third straight win. Another minor shock was in store when Balochistan’s Janan Khan accounted for left-hander Vishan Gir 4-2, but the same could not be said about the other cueist from Balochistan Mohammad Hussain, who went down 4-3 to Aneel Bherwani.

Following are the results:

Khurram Agha (Sindh) beat Raja Rashid (Punjab) 4-0: 64/52, 68/31, 81/1, 79/36. Muhammad Yousuf(Sindh) beat Faisal Essa (Sindh) 4-0: 42-32, 55-29, 65-32, 68/48. Saleh Muhammad (NWFP) beat Salman Shaikh (Sindh) 4-0: 6/58, 58/50, 91/4, 58/43, 56/46. Naveen Perwani (Sindh) beat Ahmer Shaikh (Sindh) 4-3: 54/63, 25/69, 63/14, 67/10, 39/48, 68/37, 74/52. Atif Latif Bux (Sindh) Shadab Baig (Sindh) 4-1: 75/21, 25/68, 52/42, 88/42, 57/9. Imran Shahzad (Punjab) beat Abu Saim (Punjab) 4-2: 113/16, 86/27, 51/61, 82/29, 59/87, 86/28. Aneel Bherwani (Sindh) beat Muhammad Hussain (Balochistan) 4-3: 59/39, 62/68, 57/66, 64/25, 53/66, 56/47, 57/28. Mustafa Hyder (Balochistan) beat Muhammad Akhlas (Sindh) 4-2: 26/94, 53/45, 62/27, 7/71, 61/23, 66/45 Muhammad Nazir (Punjab) beat Irfan Rasheed Khan (Sindh) 4-1: 98/24, 74/44, 65/36, 19/54, 59/50. Mukhtar Khan (Sindh) Minhas Malik (Sindh) 4-3: 49/57, 62/13, 65/26, 32/47, 67/17, 59/50. Rambel Gul (NWFP) beat Shakeel Bhatti (Sindh) 4-1: 91/20, 81/19, 39/79, 65/32, 55/33. Janan Khan (Balochistan) beat Vishan Gir (Sindh) 4-2: 70/63, 30/73, 75/38, 43/52, 63/49, 55/38.