KARACHI: With little experience under his belt, reigning national U-21 champion Ali Haider has shone in the senior category by grabbing fourth place in the national rankings released after the 44th National Snooker Championship that took place in the city last month.

Haider, the find of the country’s premier snooker championship, went down 2-6 to much senior Asjad Iqbal in the semi-finals. This was Haider’s second nationals in as many years.

Prolific Mohammad Bilal recaptured top slot after three years by returning with flying colours in the final for the second time in his career. Earlier, he won the national crown in 2016. It may be mentioned that Bilal had finished 2018 at fifth place.

Four-time National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) Cup champion and losing finalist of the national event, Asjad has leaped 11 places and occupies the second spot.

Sindh’s Zulfiqar A. Qadir has maintained his consistent run by retaining third position and kept the province among the fray.

Former top cueist Babar Masih has slipped to fifth place following his 4-5 defeat at the hands of Asjad in the quarter-finals.

Mohammad Ijaz, who astonished the fraternity by capturing the NBP Cup last year, occupies sixth place. He is followed by former world champion and three-time national champion Mohammad Asif.

The remaining three places among the top 10 are occupied by Sindh cueists Agha Bilawal, Sohail Shahzad and Sultan Mohammad respectively.

Unfortunately, this time there’s no cueists from Khyber Pakhtun­khwa among the top 10. There were three players — Sharjeel Mehmood (7th), Rambel Gul (9th) and Aakash Rafique (10th) — in the preceding rankings last year.

Following are the top 10 rankings:

1-Mohammad Bilal (Punjab), 2-Asjad Iqbal (Punjab), 3-Zulfiqar A. Qadir (Sindh), 4-Ali Haider (Punjab), 5-Babar Masih (Punjab), 6-Mohammad Ijaz (Punjab), 7-Mohammad Asif (Punjab), 8-Agha Bilawal (Sindh), 9-Sohail Shahzad (Sindh), 10-Sultan Mohammad (Sindh).

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2019