KARACHI, April 15: Two seeded players met their Waterloo, on the third day of the Red & White Style Snooker Championship held on Monday at the Karachi Gymkhana.

The first to face defeat was seventh seed Atiq Latif Bux, who went down 3-4 to Punjab’s exciting Mohammad Nazir and then ninth seed Minhas Malik met his doom against Danish Haroon by the same scoreline in a three and half marathon.

Nazir who began the proceedings with a fluent break of 43 in the opening frame saw Atiq level the frame scores 1-1, only to snatch the lead again 2-1. Getting back into his strides Atiq levelled the frame scores once again this time at 2-2 and was on course of increasing that lead further, 67 points in front in the fifth frame.

But Nazir came back magnificently with a 67 clearance which enabled him to level the frame scores 3-3 and force the issue into the last tie black ball. After a few visits by both cueists trying desperately hard to pot black, it was Nazir who came through with success taking the frame 74/67 and going ahead 3-2.

Stung into action Atiq wrapped up the next frame to level the frame scores 3-3 and in the decider with the lead changing over several times, Nazir finally prevailed, sinking black and emerging a happy 4-3 winner.

Danish Haroon losing his two opening matches by 4-3 margins, seemed destined to another defeat trailing Minhas Malik 3-2. But the cocky youngster continuing to fight back, drew level 3-3 and in the final frame came from behind potting pink and black, to emerge a happy 66/65 winner in the final frame, after Minhas fouled with his cue ball at a very crucial moment.

In an evenly contested Group D encounter, left-hander Vishan Gir finally overcame the challenge of Irfan Rasheed Khan 4-3, in a tussle that took exactly four hours to finish. In another match that went the full distance, Punjab’s Farhan Noor surprised Amit Parwani 4-3, with the last black ball deciding the issue.

Amit was leading comfortably in the final frame before three horrible blunders saw him gift his opponent 15 points. Needing to sink the pink and black to achieve a narrow win, Amit much to his horror missed black after snatching the pink and surrendered the match to his overjoyed opponent.

Wildcard entry Abu Saim delighted to get another chance in the rankings, registered his second 4-0 triumph, this time over Rambel Gul to stay in the limelight for a qualifying berth from a tough Group F.

Another cueist who continues to move along smoothly is NWFP’s Arifullah, who accounted for Balochistan’s Nasser Khan by a 4-0 scoreline. Also moving ahead by 4-0 margins were sixth seed Imran Shehzad who beat Saqib Butt and eighth seed Shakeel Bhatti, who had an easy triumph over Faisal Essa.

A fluent break of 64, saw Shadab Baig take a comfortable 2-0 lead over Naveen Perwani, before the fifth seed swept through the next four frames, helped on with breaks of 69 and 51.

Top seed Khurram Hussain Agha in a much better frame of mind, handed out a 4-1 drubbing to KPT’s Younus Amir Bux. Second seed and defending champion Farhan Mirza, dropped the first frame against counterpart A. Qadeer Butt before pinching the next four frames and the match.

Third seed Mohammad Yousuf with fine breaks of 52 and 60 in the first two frames, swept past Raees Khan 4-0. Fifth seed Saleh Mohammad chalking up a quick break of 55 in the second frame, emerged a comfortable 4-1 winner against Kamran Shah from Balochistan.

NWFP’s Noman Malik suffered his third successive defeat, this time to M. Faiq Malik 4-1, and Mustafa Hyder went down 2-4 to Punjab’s Raja Rashid.

Amer Shaikh had a walk-over against NWFP’s Nadir Khan.

Following are the results:

Raja Rashid (Punjab) beat Mustafa Hyder (Balochistan) 4-2: 50/63, 59/30, 48/58, 58/55, 65/36, 56/29. Vishan (Gir) Sindh) beat Irfan Rasheed Khan (Sindh) 4-3: 41/78, 55/24, 42/46, 97/20, 61/13, 47/37, 66/24. M. Faiq Malik (Punjab) beat Noman Awan (NWFP) 4-1: 56/29, 66/31, 33/49, 67/27, 61/25. Arifullah (NWFP) beat Nasser Khan (Balochistan) 4-0: 55/48, 62/54, 54/13, 46/14. Danish Haroon (Sindh) beat Minhas Malik Sindh) 4-3: 75/50, 46/72, 73/16, 25/59. 48/61, 73/62, 66/65. Farhan Noor (Punjab) beat Amir Parwani (Sindh) 4-3: 55/60, 29/52, 54/50, 56/36, 63/32, 36/60, 63/56. Abu Saim (Punjab) beat Rambel Gul (NWFP) 4-0: 56/39, 74/19, 68/45, 55/40. Mohammad Yousuf (Sindh) beat Raees Khan (Punjab) 4-0: 66/11, 94/21, 66/15, 67/50. Naveen Perwani (Sindh) beat Shadab Baig (Sindh) 4-2: 41/57, 51/72, 124/1, 102.32, 84/5, 56/30. Khurram Hussain Agha (Sindh) beat Younis Amir Bux (Sindh) 4-1: 63/37, 60/23, 8/64, 84/52, 58/20. Farhan Mirza (Punjab) beat A. Qadeer Butt (Punjab) 4-1: 56/64, 72/20, 56/44, 66/18, 65/6. Mohammad Nazir (Punjab) beat Atiq Latif Bux (Sindh) 4-3: 76/47, 11/64, 74/40, 8/64, 74/67, 42/67, 66/37. Shakeel Bhatti (Sindh) beat Faisal Essa (Sindh) 4-0: 61/1, 71/27, 58/54, 49/22. Saleh Mohammad (NWFP) beat Kamran Shah (Balochistan) 4-1: 56/41, 60/22, 26/64, 76/33, 55/48. Imran Shehzad (Punjab) beat Saqib Butt (Punjab) 4-0: 71/47, 64/32, 68/27, 65/63.