KARACHI, Dec 1: Qualifier Qasim Kamani along with Sohail Shehzad, Salman Sheikh and Naveen Perwani made his way into the quarterfinal of the 9th KC Open snooker championship at Karachi Club on Thursday. The four joined Muhammad Yousuf, Saleh Muhammad, Atiq Latif Bux and Khurram H Agha who had booked their berths in the last eight the other day.
In the five matches played on Thursday, Atiq dropped a frame before handing a 4-1 defeat to Abu Saim in Group ‘D’. He was home 67-32, 33-79, 76-10, 61-19, 65-25.
This was Saim’s second consecutive defeat which denied him entry in the knockout stage. He was toppled by Kamani the other day.
In Group ‘C’, Khurram chalked up two breaks of 48 and 41 in the second and third frames in his 4-1 triumph against Naveen Perwani. Final scores were 65-44, 70-8, 74-59, 29-71, 77-30.
Kamani, 20, winner of the qualifying stage, had the better of Bharat Satiani 4-1 to ensure his passage into the last eight. Kamani won 76-21, 77-28, 66-1, 55-70, 55-37.
Country’s top cueists, Muhammad Yousuf and Saleh Muhammad had a smooth 4-0 win over Sohail Shehzad and Salman Sheikh, respectively.
The former conjured up a magnificent break of 72 in the third frame before registering a straight 61-25, 59-1, 116-10, 64-36 victory over his opponent while the latter rounded off his group matches with a 72-12, 94-0, 100-1, 70-8 win over Salman.
The remaining three league matches could not be held as players who failed to qualify for knock out did not turn up.
The best of nine frames quarterfinal will be played on Friday at 4.00 pm.