KARACHI: Iran’s Soheil Vahedi rosed to heights when he outclassed Andrew Pagett of the Wales 8-1 in the final to capture the elusive International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF) World Snooker title at Doha on Tuesday.
Vahedi won the one-sided title battle 67-31, 71-17, 60-16, 13-70, 73-26, 87-30, 74-64, 85-0, 63-52.
Vahedi had conducted a 15-day training stint of junior cueists at Islamabad sometimes back.
Earlier, Vahedi overcome Declan Brennan of Northern Ireland 7-6 while Pagett whipped the defending champion Pankaj Advani 7-2 in the two contrasting semi-finals.
It is pertinent to mention that the Indian maestro had recaptured the title by getting the better of China’s Zhao Xintong 8-6 in the preceding final held at Egypt.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s last hope in the men’s category and national champion Mohammad Bilal was knocked out by the losing finalist Pagett who cruised to 6-5 victory in the quarters.
The other two Pakistanis — Imran Shehzad and Naveen Perwani — also followed suit in the master’s last-16 round. The Pakistan team is due to return home on Wednesday.
Results:
Men’s singles:
Quarter-finals: Andrew Pagett (Wales) bt Mohammad Bilal 6-5 (73-1, 0-107, 53-63, 59-64, 56-19, 72-39, 68-19, 43-44, 23-74, 59-33, 75-37).
Last-16 round: Mohammad Bilal bt Alexander Ursenbacher (Switzerland) 5-3 (77-25, 102-6, 81-39, 91-0, 27-80, 100-15, 94-0, 68-31).
Master’s: Last-16 round: Rupesh Shah (India) bt Imran Shehzad 4-1 (101-25, 66-27, 69-66, 1-74, 70-18); Phisit Chandsri (Thailand) bt Naveen Perwani 4-2 (58-70, 88-39, 97-11, 40-81, 71-16, 106-22).
Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2016
