KARACHI, Aug 30: Underdog Saqib Zia produced the biggest upset of the 14th national ranking snooker cup when he toppled Saleh Muhammad 4-3 but both advanced to the last-16 stage at Area Snooker Club on Tuesday.

Saqib, ranked 16th in the national rankings, took Saleh to full distance before carving out a great win. Saleh still finished on top in Group “A” while Saqib Zia finished second.

From pool Group “B” Muhammad Yousuf and Kashif Khan qualified for the pre-quarter final round.

Third seed Naveen Perwani after a surprise defeat on Monday, returned to top form to book his berth in last-16 by handing out 4-1 drubbing to Raees Khan. Naveen compiled three breaks of 65, 84 and 54. Kashif finished runner-up in Group “C”.

Imran Shahzad, seeded fourth made his entry into the pre-quarters with a clean slate by routing Muhammad Asif in four straight frames.

Abu Saim was the other player who scored third consecutive victory to emerge as Group “F” champion with a comfortable 4-1 win against Salman Shaikh.

Khurram Agha topped Group “H” and Shehram Changezi got runner-up slot.

Results:

Rambel Gul bt M Jamshed 4-1 (68-08, 64-37, 23-68, 62-30, 73-33), Waqas Malik bt Kashif Khan 4-2 (47-75, 56-32, 34-59, 74-06, 55-14, 68-40), Arshad Siddiq bt Shah Khan 4-3 (60-67, 54-12, 63-40, 6-78, 19-61, 45-44, 48-46), Saqib Butt bt Saleh Muhammad 4-3 (87-15, 51-64, 58-22, 74-21, 27-55, 21-65, 63-18), Muhammad Yousuf walkover Shakeel Bhatti, Naveen Perwani bt Raees Khan 4-1 (84-31, 40-72, 80-07, 84-04, 83-09), Imran Shahzad bt M Asif 4-0 (74-45, 75-45, 63-51, 71-18), Abu Saim bt Salman Shaikh 4-1 (55-16, 13-70, 52-42, 78-01, 67-38), Khurram Agha bt Shehram Chengezi 4-3 (41-73, 74-05, 67-21, 12-76, 39-53, 59-21, 60-46), Atiq latif Bakhsh bt Minhas Malik 4-0 (62-02, 56-22, 63-07, 86-56), Imtiaz Tipu bt Inamur Rehman 4-3 (67-27, 74-01, 60-27, 43-51, 16-72, 17-64, 51-17)

Wednesday’s fixtures: Imran v Minhas Malik, Salman v Yousuf, Imtiaz Tipu v Kashif, Shehram v Saleh, Khurram Aga v M. Asif, Saqib v Naveen, Atiq v Sohail Shahzad, Irfan Rasheed Khan v Abu Saim.—APP