KARACHI, Sept 13: Favourite Saleh Muhammed will take on Raees Khan in the opening match of the 19th Latif Masters snooker championship starting from Wednesday at the Karachi Club.

Top 16 cueists of the country divided into four groups will be taking part in a four-day event, which is named after great Latif Amir Bakhsh, acclaimed as the best exponent of cue sports produced by the country who passed away in 1987. The knockout stage will commence from the quarterfinals.

The prize basket of the ranking tournament includes Rs100,000 for the winner and the runner-up will get richer by Rs50,000. The semifinalists and the quarterfinalists would get Rs15,000 and Rs5,000 each respectively while the prize for the highest break will be Rs5,000.

Cueists taking part in the competition are: Saleh Mohammad, Mohammad Yousuf, Naveen Kumar Perwani, Abu Saim, Imran Shahzad, Atiq Latif Bakhsh, Khurram Hussain Agha, Shehram Changezi, Imtiaz Tipu, Saquib Butt, Sohail Shahzad, Mohammad Asif, Minhas Malik, Inam-ur-Rahman, Salman Sheikh and Raees Khan.

Asian Games bronze medallist Naveen Perwani is the defending champion while Abu Saim, who recently won the Snooker Cup, will be one of the leading contenders to dethrone him.

Yousuf, Imran and Khurram will also be among the favourites besides Saleh Muhammad to lift the trophy.—PPI