KARACHI: Highly talented Hamza Akbar defea­ted Malaysian Mohammad Reza 6-2 to become the third Pakistani cueist ever to reach final of the 31st Asian Snooker Championship at Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.

According to results made available here, the 21-year-old two-time national champion including 2015, Hamza, enthralled the crowd by registering a resounding victory over host country player to emulate the feat of his predecessors — Mohammad Yousuf (1998) and Moham­mad Sajjad (2010). The former crowned Asian champion at home in 1998 while the latter went down to Thailand’s Issara Kachai­wang 3-7 in the final at Chanthaburi, Thailand, in 2010.

Having rich experience under his belt, youthful Hamza recovered from a slow start to post an authoritative 27-66, 85-5, 115-6, 69-25, 33-72, 90-56, 103-0, 77-4 victory over Reza in the best of 11 frames semi-final.

Earlier in the day, Hamza handed out a crushing 5-1 defeat to compatriot and losing finalists of this year’s national championship, Shahram Changezi, 5-1 to sneak into semi-final. He was home 83-18, 7-120, 57-26, 69-18, 69-49, 74-47. However, on way to making exit, Shahram hammered an elegant century break of 120 in the second frame — his third century break of the event previous being 102 and 121 against Japan’s Shuji Hase in the group opener.

Hamza is slated to face Indian Panjak Advani in the best of 15 frames final on Thursday.

Results:

Quarter-finals: Hamza Akbar (Pakistan) bt Shahram Changezi (Pakistan) 5-1 (83-18, 7-120, 57-26, 69-18, 69-49, 74-47). Semi-final: Hamza Akbar (Pakistan) bt Mohammad Reza (Malaysia) 6-2 (27-66, 85-5, 115-6, 69-25, 33-72, 90-56, 103-0, 77-4)

Thursday’s final: Pankaj Advani (India) v Hamza Akbar (Pakistan) at 1pm

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2015

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