KARACHI: Four players — Mubashir Raza, Mohammad Naseem Akhtar, M. Ahsan Javaid and Mohammad Majid Ali — have jumped into top 10 of the national rankings released by the Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Federation (PBSF) on Thursday.

The quartet have leaped places by showing better performance in the 11th National Bank of Pakistan ranking snooker championship which concluded earlier this month.

Mubashir, who was ranked 18th after the 44th national championship, moved 13 places to attain his career best fifth ranking. This was made possible after he played his career’s first ranking final where he went down fighting to veteran Mohammad Asif by 7-8 frames.

He is closely followed by ex-junior world champion Mohammad Naseem Akhtar at the sixth spot. Naseem was 11th in the last rankings.

Ahsan, who was 23rd earlier, has seized eighth place while Majid is at the 10th.

They have come at the expense of Ali Haider (3rd), Babar Masih (4th), Agha Bilawal (8th) and Sultan Mohammad (10th).

Meanwhile, there are slight changes in the rankings of the remaining half-a-dozen cueists.

Senior cueist Mohammad Asif has succeeded Mohammad Bilal who has slipped to the fourth position.

Zulfiqar and Asjad have swapped their places grabbing second and third spots respectively.

Former NBP Cup champion Ijaz has slipped from sixth to seventh while Sohail Shahzad has maintained his ninth slot.

Top 10 rankings:

1-Mohammad Asif (Punjab), 2-Zulfiqar A. Qadir (Sindh), 3-Asjad Iqbal (Punjab), 4-Mohammad Bilal (Punjab), 5-Mubashir Raza (Punjab), 6-Mohammad Naseem Akhtar (Punjab), 7-Mohammad Ijaz (Punjab), 8-M. Ahsan Javaid (Punjab), 9-Sohail Shahzad (Sindh), 10-Mohammad Majid Ali (Punjab)

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2019