KARACHI: Pakistan’s newly crowned world under-18 champion Mohammad Naseem Akhtar had a mixed fortune on the second day of the world under-21 snooker championship at Beijing losing one and winning one match on Thursday.

Naseem, who is also national under-18 and under-21 champion, had a brisk start against Tyler Rees of the Wales taking 3-1 lead in the best of seven encounter from where he succumbed to pressure and lost.

Rees showed a great fighting spirit and won the duel 64-19, 39-72, 16-58, 30-74, 67-17, 74-0, 53-42.

Finally Naseem overcome the pressure routing Iran’s Shervin Omidvas straight 58-48, 87-31, 74-56, 80-0 to post first win in three games. He had lost his group opener to Chinese Mingqi Geng in similar fashion 3-4 the other day. He is now slated to meet Russian Kirill Petrov in his next fixture on Friday.

Another Pakistani cueist Haris Tahir, meanwhile, tasted his successive defeat losing 2-4 to Jackson Page of tbe Wales.who fought back from two-all to register 67-37, 99-16, 48-51, 48-59, 56-40, 67-37 victory.

He is drawn to face Belgium’s Julien Leclercq on Friday.

The league matches will be followed by last-32 round on Friday.

Results

Jackson Page (Wales) bt Haris Tahir 4-2 (67-37, 99-16, 48-51, 48-59, 56-40, 67-37); Tyler Rees (Wales) bt Mohammad Naseem Akhtar 4-3 (64-19, 39-72, 16-58, 30-74, 67-17, 74-0, 53-42); Mohammad Naseem Akhtar bt Shervin Omidvas (Iran) 4-0 (58-48, 87-31, 74-56, 80-0).

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2017