June 21, 2006	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 24, 1427

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KARACHI, June 20: Imran Shahzad, runners up of this year’s nationals, and former world champion, Mohammad Yousuf, bulldozed their way into the final of 10th Style ranking snooker tournament by winning their nerve tingling pre-finals at the Karachi Gymkhana on Tuesday.

Second seed Imran recovered from three frames down to whip fifth seed Sohail Shehzad 6-4 in three and a half battle. The scores were: 45-65, 7-72, 16-106, 75-24, 66-36, 64-8, 24-67, 56-53, 66-26, 84-18.

Similarly, ninth seed Yousuf took four hours to edge out sixth seed Naveen Perwani by the identical score line. Final scores were: 74-33, 41-14, 9-66, 74-0, 72-0, 64-47, 42-77, 31-57, 56-81, 63-22.

The four players stormed into the semifinals by disposing off their respective opponent’s in quarterfinals played earlier in the day.

Yousuf took a sweat revenge of his pre-quarterfinal loss in the national championship when he downed top seed Khurram Agha 5-1.

Naveen and Imran lived up to their reputation when they got the better of Rambel Gul and Salman Shaikh 5-3 apiece while Sohail rallied hard to overcome Saqib Butt 5-4.

Sohail who lost to Imran 2-5 in quarterfinal of national also, raced on to take 3-0 lead grabbing the frames 65-45, 72-7, 106-16 with a fluent break of 65 in the second.

Imran changed his game plan by adopting defensive strategy and kept his cool while going to pot the coloured balls. This helped him to draw level 3-3 by pocketing the next three frames in a row 75-24, 66-36, 64-8.

Sohail again surged 4-3 ahead by taking the seventh frame 67-24 and was enjoying slender lead in the eighth when he missed the pink ball which proved to be the turning point.

Imran neutralised the score 4-4 and went on to wrap up the match 6-4 claiming the last two frames with a splendid break of 62 in the ninth.

Imran, 30, who will be playing fourth final of his career and second of the year, is due to attain top slot when the new ranking will be released after the event.

Fresh from 5-1 triumph against Khurram, the 13-time national champion, Yousuf, was in tremendous form and took a commendable 5-1 lead. He won the first two frames 77-33, 41-14 before conceding the next 9-66. He went on to enhance his lead taking the following three 74-0, 72-0, 64-47.

Naveen, who crowned the 10th KC Open snooker challenge by chalking up 6-5 win against Yousuf in the final, put his act together and made the match interesting winning the seventh, eighth and ninth frames 77-42, 57-31, 81-56 to narrow the lead 4-5.

Finally, experience prevailed as Yousuf rounded off the match winning the tenth frame 63-22.

Results:

(Quarterfinals) Mohammad Yousuf (Sindh) bt Khurram Agha (Sindh) 5-1 (70-6, 65-16, 61-25, 7-91, 64-1, 70-37); Naveen Perwani (Sindh) bt Rambel Gul (NWFP) 5-3 (66-29, 57-53, 15-50, 17-70, 81-10, 70-38, 29-57, 66-35); Imran Shahzad (Pun) bt Salman Shaikh (Sindh) 5-3 (67-41, 19-73, 67-19, 42-77, 41-91, 95-16, 46-31, 72-14); Sohail Shehzad (Sindh) bt Saqib Butt (Pun) 5-4 (81-39, 15-61, 60-6, 75-37, 40-58, 85-10, 30-56, 42-62, 66-53).

(Semifinals)Imran Shahzad (Pun) bt Sohail Shehzad (Sindh) 6-4 (45-65, 7-72, 16-106, 75-24, 66-36, 64-8, 24-67, 56-53, 66-26, 84-18); Mohammad Yousuf (Sindh) bt Naveen Perwani (Sindh) 6-4 (74-33, 41-14, 9-66, 74-0, 72-0, 64-47, 42-77, 31-57, 56-81, 63-22).Wednesday’s fixtures:

2.00pm: (final) Imran Shahzad v Mohammad Yousuf.