KARACHI, May 8: Punjab cueist Shahid Shafiq who lost his opening match to eighth seed Shehram Changezi on the opening day, bounced back into contention when he toppled defending champion Rambel Gul 4-3 in the Ninth Style ranking snooker championship played on Sunday at the Karachi Gymkhana.

After losing the first two frames 28/55 and 24/55, Rambel soon ran up a 3-1 lead breezing through the next three frames and was now only a frame away from victory. But the snooker fans watched on in stunned silence as Shafiq, in a last gasp effort, grabbed the next two frames 61/30, 68/45 to earn a loud applause from the snooker gathering.

Top seed Saleh Mohammad beat Kamran Razzak 4-1 with a fluent break of 64. Kamran however, chalked up 81 points in the only frame he managed to win. But second seed Naveen Perwani had to really struggle before overcoming Raees Khan 4-3. Winning the first two frames Naveen lost the next two. After awhile the frame scores were locked 3-3, before Naveen finally getting his act together picked up the final frame 89/14. The same could be said about fourth seed Imran Shehzad, he too survived after being held 3-3 by NWFP’s Arshad Siddiq.

Results: Shehram Changezi (Punjab) bt Mohammad Nazir (Punjab) 4-3: 34/60, 73/42, 52/41, 57/32, 15/63, 52/67, 62/45. Atiq Latif Bux (Sindh) bt Zahid Junejo (Sindh) 4-0: 67/18, 82/9, 81/30, 73/30. Saqib Butt (Punjab) bt Waqas Malik (Sindh) 4-0: 56/28, 63/16, 54/32. Saqib was awarded the first frame when Waqas arrived late for his match. Inam ur Rehman (NWFP) bt Farrukh Usman (Sindh) 4-2: 61/43, 18/59, 64/63, 61/42, 61/66, 83/7. Imran Shehzad (Punjab) bt Arshad Siddiq (NWFP) 4-3: 82/47, 38/72, 52/60, 83/25, 71/27, 41/55, 64/51. Saleh Mohammad (NWFP) bt Kamran Razzak Sindh) 4-1: 94/10, 63/31, 60/31, 8/86, 77/2. Naveen Perwani (Sindh) bt Rasees Khan (Punjab) 4-3: 63/34, 70/44, 20/61, 46/57, 72/48, 43/70, 89/14. Mohammad Yousuf (Sindh) bt Shahdab Baig (Sindh) 4-1: 57/37, 27/69, 49/34, 50/3, 59/49. Shahid Shafiq (Punjab) bt (Rambel Gul (NWFP) 4-3: 55/28, 51/24, 71/51, 1/88, 17/64, 61‘/30, 68/35. Kashif Khan (Sindh) bt Shakir Rafiq (Sindh) 4-1: 59/15, 12/71, 71/27, 62/47, 79/47. Shakeel Bhatti (Sindh) bt Naseem Paracha (Sindh) 4-2: 38/62, 64/18, 25/61, 54/45, 58/26, 77/20. Vishan Gir (Sindh) bt Abid Salim (Punjab) 4-2: 27/71, 63/18, 55/46, 69/21, 47/61, 97/0. Qamar Khan (NWFP) bt M. Shehzad (Punjab) 4-0: 63/52, 63/24, 57/20, 51/29. Sohail Shehzad (Sindh) bt Mohammad Baqar (Sindh) 4-1: 88/15, 81/7, 64/35, 23/55, 55/52. Nadeem Rasheed (Punjab) bt Mesam Zaidi (Sindh) 4-1: 51/16, 40/51, 66/26, 67/25, 73/59. Saqib Zia (Sindh) bt Shah Khan (NWFP) 4-3: 49/45, 61/35, 57/33, 41/50, 50/58, 42/66, 63/31.