KARACHI, March 11: At least four outsiders were among 16 who stormed in the knockout pre quarter-finals of the 32nd National Snooker Championship at the conclusion of league matches at Karachi Gymkhana on Sunday.

The quartet — Atif Mughal, Mohammad Shahid, Shah Khan and Mohammad Nazeer — displayed excellent performance by advancing to the next stage at the expense of ranking players. Those who met their waterloo are Rambel Gul, Mesam Zaidi, Saqib Butt and Mohammad Asif.

The matches will be played in two sessions with first starting at 11.00am followed by the second at 2.00pm.

The Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association (PBSA) has for the first time flouted international rules by curtailing the pre quarter-finals from best of nine frames to best of seven which drew severe criticism from competing players.

“This is against international rules which they follow,” a player, who chose to be anonymous, told Dawn.

Defending champion and top seed, Khurram Agha (KPT), who topped group ‘A’ with unbeaten run, is slated to meet 8th seed Salman Shaikh in the second session.

Veteran Mohammad Yousuf, the second seed, who despite a defeat finished on top of group ‘B’ is drawn to take Punjab qualifier Mohammad Shahid at 2.00pm.

In the other two matches to be played in the afternoon, Vishan Gir is pitted against Sohail Shehzad while Imran Shehzad faces Imtiaz Tipu.

Reigning Latif Masters champion and third seed, Naveen Perwani, meets Mohammad Nazeer in the first session. The other three matches will be between Abu Saim-Imran Qamar, Irfan Rasheed Khan-Raees Khan and Atif Mughal-Shah Khan.—AZ