KARACHI: Reigning national under-21 champion Mohammad Saqib suffered straight loss while two other cueists — under-18 champion Haris Tahir and Abdul Raheem — won their respective openers in the 17th Asian under-21 snooker championship which got underway at Colombo on Wednesday.

Saqib had a poor start suffering straight whitewash at the hands of Sri Lankan M. M. Rikez 42-55, 42-58, 34-68, 46-55.

Contrary to Saqib’s performance, his two other contemporaries came up with fine performance winning their openers in style.

Tahir, who after annexing the national under-18 title in January finished runner-up in the under-21 final, sent Indian Ishpreet Singh packing 4-1 (71-16, 74-16, 71-64, 28-62, 80-8).

Similarly, Raheem, who represented the country at the inaugural IBSF world under-18 snooker championship last year, registered a convincing 4-0 victory over South Korean Seeon Kim the scores being 61-17, 68-8, 56-54, 71-2.

Results:

Haris Tahir bt Ishpreet Singh (India) 4-1 (71-16, 74-16, 71-64, 28-62, 80-8); Mohammad Saqib lost to M. M. Rikez (Sri Lanka) 0-4 (42-55, 42-58, 34-68, 46-55); Abdul Raheem bt Seeon Kim (South Korea) 4-0 (61-17, 68-8, 56-54, 71-2).

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2016