KARACHI: Pakistani trio of defending champion Ahsan Ramzan, former runner-up Mohammad Sajjad and Babar Masih opened their campaigns on a winning note at the IBSF World Snooker Championship in Antalya, Turkey on Saturday.

Top seed Ahsan survived scare in group ‘A’ encounter when he overcame from two frames down to inflict a 3-2 (51-73, 50-64, 74-50, 58-21, 68-16) defeat on Egypt’s Aly Abouhedia.

Third seed Sajjad hammered a century break of 104, first of the competition, as he cruised to a straight victory over Turkey’s Kivanc Karahan in the best of five frames duel in group C. He was home 60-15, 72-9, 104-4.

Babar blanked Jerome Liedtke of Austria 113-15, 99-21, 87-30 in group ‘Q’.

As many as 97 cueists in the premier global event have been divided into 24 groups. The group matches conclude on Nov 8.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2022