June 16, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 30, 1428

KARACHI, June 15: Khurram Agha, the former Pakistan No 1, produced a giant-killing performance when he ended pretension of second seed Alok Kumar of India with an imposing 5-4 win to storm into the semi-finals of the 23rd Asian Snooker Championship on Friday.

With lady luck on his side, Khurram made a remarkable comeback from 2-4 down to post a 33-67, 76-47, 59-14, 30-66, 57-58, 38-66, 78-20, 71-68, 73-43 victory against the seasoned campaigner, who is also a former Asian champion.

Khurram, 30, is drawn to meet two-time former Asian champion and Alok’s compatriot, Yasin Merchant, who in the other encounter gave a 5-4 drubbing to China No 1 and fourth seed Liu Chuang (38-86, 13-75, 77-0, 63-8, 17-82, 28-70, 71-25, 63-25, 87-20).

However, China’s No 2 Jin Long, the Asian champion in 2005, survived a scare before edging past Singapore’s Keith E. Boon 5-4. The scores being 32-93, 55-28, 68-41, 47-61, 84-11, 23-49, 45-62, 57-12, 64-34.

Jin will be up against third seed Supoj Saenia of Thailand who blanked last year’s runner up UAE’s Mohammad Shaheb 5-0 (93-8, 70-19, 65-21, 52-38, 98-4).

“I’m delighted to win as on one hand it helped me avenge my loss to Alok in India and on the other it took me into semis,” a jubilant Khurram told Dawn after clinching the five-hour gruelling battle.

He became the fourth Pakistani after Yousuf, Saleh and Farhan to propel into the semis of an Asian Snooker Championship.

Alok, a native of Indian Punjab, compiled a break of 46 to grab the first frame 67-33. However, he failed to maintain the lead as Khurram surged into a 2-1 lead by taking the next two frames – 76-47, 59-14. The third frame carried a break of 45.

Alok, who made his seniors debut in Karachi in 1991, went on to win the next three frames 66-30, 58-57 and 66-38 to forge 4-2 up. But backed up by the audience, there was no stopping for Khurram as he kept his cool to round off the match by claiming three frames in a row (78-20, 71-68 and 73-43). The seventh and eighth frames contain splendid breaks of 70 and 44.

Earlier, Yasin recovered twice to topple Liu Chuang by the identical score line.

After conceding the first two frames (38-86, 13-75), he levelled by taking the third and fourth frames (77-0, 63-8) only to trail again, surrendering 17-82, 28-70.

But finally it was the experience that prevailed as Yasin pocketed the final three frames (71-25, 63-25, 87-20) while giving no chance to his opponent.

Yasin build up breaks of 77, 63, 62 and 71 in the third, seventh, eighth and ninth frames, while Chuang compiled two breaks of 61 and 62 in the first and sixth.

Supoj Saenia kept Thailand in title contention when he demolished Shehab 5-0 in a one-sided match.

Saenia, who hammered highest break of 109 against Bahrain’s Habib Sabah in the pre quarter-finals on Thursday, was impressive all the way on Friday.

Results:

Quarter-finals: Yasin Merchant (India) bt Liu Chuang (China) 5-4 (38-86, 13-75, 77-0, 63-8, 17-82, 28-70, 71-25, 63-25, 87-20); Khurram Agha (Pakistan) bt Alok Kumar (India) 5-4 (33-67, 76-47, 59-14, 30-66, 57-58, 38-66, 78-20, 71-68, 73-43); Jin Long (China) bt Keith E. Boon (Singapore) 5-4 (32-93, 55-28, 68-41, 47-61, 84-11, 23-49, 45-62, 57-12, 64-34); Supoj Saenia (Thailand) bt Mohammad Shehab (UAE) 5-0 (93-8, 70-19, 65-21, 52-38, 98-4).

Saturday’s fixtures:

Semi-finals: Yasin Merchant (India) v Khurram Agha (Pakistan) at 1.00pm; Jin Long (China) v Supoj Saenia (Thailand) at 5.00pm.