KARACHI, Sept 15: Fourth seed Naveen Perwani was the last player to reach the semifinals of the 18th Latif Masters Top 16 Ranking snooker championship, when the last group matches were played on Wednesday at the Karachi Club.

With Abu Saim, Atiq Latif Bux and Rambel Gul, all through to the last four the previous evening, the last match between the defending champion and top seed Khurram Hussain Agha and fourth seed Naveen Perwani would decide the fourth semifinalist.

The Pakistan skipper did not play in the last ranking tournament and failed to make the trip to India for the Peace Cup due to his father's illness. However, he made up his mind to play the Latif Masters and now faces Khurram for a semifinal berth, a tense encounter seemed to be on the cards.

Khurram began with a bang hoisting up 59 points on his second visit to the table in the opening frame but Naveen hit back with 43 points on the trot, which enabled him to take a 1-0 lead, grabbing the first frame 72/65. Khurram had another sparkling break of 64 in the next, which enabled him to draw level 1-1.

But from then on it was Naveen all the way. Potting skilfully, he picked up the next three frames 73/21, 85/1 and 69/25, to make his triumphant entry into the last four, finishing second, ahead of Khurram in Group A.

Rambel, topped the Group after handing out a 4-0 drubbing to last year's runner-up Amit Perwani. Abu Saim topped Group B breezing past Shakeel Bhatti 4-0, but Atiq had to work up a sweat in his 4-2 victory over Minhas Malik, who almost made the score 3-3 when he missed a sitter black.

Had Minhas beaten Atiq 4-3, then Saleh Mohammad, who moved smoothly past Mohammad Yousuf 4-0 on the next table, would have qualified for the semis on frame scores. In other matches played on Wednesday, the crafty left-hander Vishan Gir, sounding breaks of 33, 38, 47, 32 and 44 in the final frame beat Mohammad Akhlas 4-3. Akhlas hit back with a break of 47 in the third frame.

Although chalking up breaks of 39, 55 and 46 in the second, fourth and sixth frames, Mohammad Nazir ended up on the losing side, going down 4-3 to counterpart Mohammad Asif.

Imran Shehzad also had to battle in overcoming the challenge of Sher Khan 4-2. After the Pool matches were played, Rambel and Naveen finished off with six points apiece.

Rambel however took the top spot in the group with a +16 frame advantage to Naveen's +11. Khurram and Imran finished with five points each, but Khurram grabbed the third spot, along with the prize money of Rs.10,000, with +9 frame advantage, to Imran's +8.

Shah Khan and Mohammad Asif had two points apiece, but Shah Khan finished fifth with a -9 frame advantage to Asif's -10. Seventh was Mohammad Nazir with one point and -9, while Amit finished at the bottom of Group A with one point and -16.

In Group B, Rambel and Atiq had six points each, but Rambel finished on top with a +15 frame advantage to Atiq's +12. Saleh had to be content with the third spot and a purse of Rs.10,000, finishing with five points and a +13 frame advantage.

Yousuf was fourth with four points and +4 frame advantage, Vishan Gir fifth with three points and -5 frame advantage, followed by Akhlas sixth with two points and -10, Minhas one point and -13 to Shakeel's one point and -16.

So far only one century break of 103 was registered by Saleh on Monday against Shakeel. On the opening day Saleh missed out with a clearance of 99 against Minhas. Khurram chalked up 95 points against Nazir on Tuesday, while Atiq had the next highest break of 88 points on Monday against Akhlas.

SEMIFINAL LINEUP.