KARACHI, Jan 30: Shehram Changezi, a promising cueist from Punjab, created the first upset in the 30th National snooker championship by shutting out the dangerous Rambel Gul from Peshawar 4-2
, before a stunned audience at the Karachi Club snooker hall on Sunday.
After picking up the first frame, Rambel was soon 1-2 in arrears losing the next two to his determined opponent, but levelled the scores at 2-2 with a 67/0 triumph in the fourth frame. But all the snooker fans present in the hall were in for a quite a shock, when Shehram throwing caution to the wind, reduced Rambel to a mere passenger in the last two frames 75/19, 86/18 to emerge a worthy winner.
Thirteen time chamion Mohammad Yousuf began the defense of his title by shutting out NWFP's Qamar Khan 4-0 with fluent breaks of 67, 34, 51 and 47. Also moving ahead with 4-0 margins were second seed Saleh Mohammad, who overwhelmed counterpart Arshad Siddiq 4-0 with breaks of 68 and 45, fourth seed Naveen Perwani brushing aside Nadir Khan with a splendid break of 99 in the opener, following it up with breaks of 40 and 52 in the final frame.
Atiq Latif Bux with an awesome display of snooker registered breaks of 74, 80 and 53, against his hapless opponent Shahid Shafiq, while Shakeel Bhatti, finally getting his act together downed Farrukh Usman, with a break of 94 in the third frame.
Imtiaz Tipu downed Mohammad Akhlas,his second defeat without picking up a frame. On the opening day Mohammad Akhlas was surprised by Saqib Zia 4-0 and on Sunday he went down by the same margin. Top seed Khurram Hussain Agha with a fine break of (81), beat Nauman Awan, with the NWFP cueist forcing the top seed to bring out his best.
Sixth seed Imran Shehzad after losing the first two frames, rallied with breaks of 62 and 87 to emerge a 4-2 winner. Seventh seed left-hander Vishan Gir beat Sindh's Kamran Razzak 4-2, with eighth seed Abu Saim beating Abid Saleem by the same margin.
Also winning by 4-2 margins were Punjab's Mohammad Nazir, who beat Sindh's Masood Ahmed, Minhas Malik registering his second 4-2 victory this time over Raees Khan and Shah Khan after his embarrasing 4-0 defeat at the hands of M. Shehzad, bounced back on Sunday to beat Balochistan's top cueist Kamran Shah 4-2.
