March 05, 2008	Wednesday	Safar 26, 1429

KARACHI, March 4: Sindh’s Ahad Ali Khan and Tahir Abbas of Punjab have almost ensured places in the knockout stage from their respective groups with a clean slate in the National juniors snooker championship at the Karachi Club on Tuesday.

After handing a 3-1 defeat to his Sindh colleague Abbas Rizvi in the morning session, Ahad struggled to beat Mohsin Abbas 3-2 to register his third straight win in Group C.

Similarly, Tahir continued his unbeaten run by chalking up two more wins on the second day in Group D. First he carved out a 3-0 victory over Sindh’s Mohammad Shahram followed by a 3-1 triumph over Azeem Yousuf. He had demolished Haroon Anwar 3-0 the other day.

Azeem, son of former world snooker champion, Mohammad Yousuf, had won two and lost one out of three fixtures. He had to win both his matches against Shahram and Abdul Ghafoor on Wednesday in order to qualify for the next stage.

Results:

Abdul Basit (Sindh) bt M. Hassan Anis (Sindh) 3-0 (50-10, 46-11, 41-22); Agha Bilawal Raza (Sindh) bt Ahmad Shah (Balochistan) 3-0 (60-47, 67-41, 62-24); Ahad Ali Khan (Sindh) bt S. Abbas Rizvi (Sindh) 3-1 (44-45, 54-27, 61-40, 62-31); Tahir Abbas (Punjab) bt Mohammad Shahram (Sindh) 3-0 (65-16, 78-30, 79-25); Ahsan Javed (Punjab) bt Ayaz Khan (Punjab) 3-1 (65-18, 29-63, 67-24, 53-40); Ramiz Aftab (NWFP) bt Hamid Younus (Punjab) 3-2 (57-62, 70-46, 66-40, 24-59, 53-42); Mohsin Abbas (Balochistan) bt Mohammad Haseeb (Sindh) 3-1 (53-78, 73-29, 68-45, 44-23); Azeem Yousuf (Sindh) bt Haroon Anwer (NWFP) 3-0 (60-20, 50-36, 45-33); Umair Alam Khan (Sindh) bt M. Hassan Anis (Sindh) 3-1 (87-1, 49-56, 65-9, 65-8); Mohammad Afzal (Punjab) bt Ahmad Shah (Balochistan) 3-0 (75-1, 60-27, 55-42); S. Abbas Rizvi (Sindh) bt Asim Khan (NWFP) 3-0 (72-49, 59-53, 56-10); Abdul Ghafoor (Balochistan) bt Mohammad Shahram (Sindh) 3-0 (50-36, 69-32, 63-18); Ahsan Javed (Punjab) bt Abdul Basit (Sindh) 3-0 (66-6, 66-25, 51-36); Agha Bilawal Raza (Sindh) bt Ramiz Aftab (NWFP) 3-1 (55-21, 62-52, 28-59, 69-13); Ahad Ali Khan (Sindh) bt Mohsin Abbas (Balochistan) 3-2 (5-71, 63-36, 36-52, 53-31, 44-27); Tahir Abbas (Punjab) bt Azeem Yousuf (Sindh) 3-1 (26-40, 73-64, 59-49, 58-11).

Wednesday’s fixtures:

Matches of first session begin at 10:00am.