KARACHI, April 28: The top six cueists cruised into the quarterfinals of the 8th Style ranking snooker championship before a jampacked audience at the Karachi Gymkhana on Wednesday.
Top seed Khurram Hussain Agha ended the pretensions of Balochistan's Janan Khan 5-1, after the latter reached the knock-out stage for the first time in his short career.
Defending champion and current world No.2 Saleh Mohammad seemed to be in impeccable form in his 5-2 triumph over Punjab's Raees Khan, registering splendid breaks of 60 and 89 in the first and third frames respectively, while the former world and Asian champion Mohammad Yousuf seemed in no hurry to dispose of young Shehram Changezi 5-0.
Fourth seed Naveen Perwani, the only player to register a century break to date in this tournament, accounted for Sindh veteran Mohammad Akhlas 5-2, with both players chalking up breaks of 67.
Fifth seed Imran Shehzad had to work up a sweat in overcoming his compatriot from Punjab, Mohammad Nazir 5-3. When play began Nazir started off on a confident note picking up the first frame 67/7 with effortless ease.
Getting his act together, Imran pocketed the next three frames to sit pretty 3-1 ahead. But Nazir was not going down in a hurry. Although in the doldrums Nazir began to play with utmost confidence and potting everything in sight, he drew abreast 3-3, bagging the next two frames.
Realising that he had a dangerous adversary on his hands, Imran went on the attack which completely had his opponent on the defensive. Picking up the last two frames 74/2 and 67/16, Imran finally made a triumphant entry into the quarterfinals, where he will take on Saleh Mohammad in the best of nine frames.
Atiq Latif Bux seeded sixth in this tournament had a hectic time in the qualifying rounds and even surrendered the top spot in Group F to Abu Saim. But the youngster, scion of the late and great Latif Amir Bux, finally got into his strides and excelling with his long potting, had a surprisingly easy victory over Shakeel Bhatti, winner of Group H.
Shakeel improving with every round had no answer to Atiq's onslaught and was reduced to a mere passenger in the first four frames. An attacking player himself, Shakeel managed to wrest the shackles presenting some hope to his supporters by winning the next two frames to inch closer 2-4. But that was to be his last hurrah.
Atiq registering a break of 50, took the seventh frame, to emerge a 5-2 winner. The danger man from the NWFP Rambel Gul, who gave Saleh a torrid time before going down 4-3 in the last qualifying round on Tuesday, kept up the tempo while getting the better of Sindh's seventh seed Vishan Gir 5-3 and booking his place in the quarterfinals.
In a keenly contested encounter the frame scores were tied 1-1, but soon Rambel playing some excellent snooker broke away moving up in front 3-1, after winning the next two frames.
Although disappointed with himself for missing some easy scoring chances, the gritty left-hander fought back into contention. Grabbing the next two frames 60/42 and 72/5, Vishan seemed to be on the verge of turning the tide.
But it was not to be. Grabbing the seventh frame 74/8, Rambel swept into the lead once again 4-3 and with confidence restored took the next frame also to come through a relieved 5-3 winner.
Abu Saim booked his berth amongst the last eight when he breezed past NWFP's Shah Khan. The snooker fans braced themselves for a tough battle between these two cueists. Abu potting gracefully won the first two frames easily before Shah managed to pull one back 1-2, latching on to the third.
But it was Abu who came through a comfortable winner taking the last three frames, coming through a comfortable 5-1 winner. Abu will now have a mountain to climb when he meets Naveen on Thursday for semifinal berth.
Quarterfinals line-up:
Khurram Hussain Agha v Rambel Gul; Naveen Perwani v Abu Saim; Saleh Mohammed v Imran Shehzad; Atiq latif Bux v Mohammad Yousuf.
