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KARACHI: Pakistan number one Imran Shehzad dethroned Muhammad Sajjad to enter the final of the National Snooker Championship on Wednesday.
Shehzad will face Muhammad Shahid in an all-Punjab final at the Billiards Hall of Karachi Gymkhana, after both scored contrasting wins in their last-four matches.
Shahid, from Faisalabad, survived some anxious moments to overcome Sultan Muhammad of Sindh with a score of 6-4 to cruise into his first-ever national final.
Shahid made a whirlwind start by taking a 4-0 lead with spectacular cue control but Sultan pulled back the next three frames to make it 4-3 before falling in the next two frames to hand Shahid the win.
Earlier, Shehzad carved out breaks of 56, 54, 65 to complete an easy win over defending champion Sajjad.
Sajjad, who finished runner-up in last year’s Asian championship in Thailand scored a break of 70 in the third frame and won the fifth frame but failed to pose any threat for the national number one.
Shehzad, who with Sajjad and Sohail Shehzad represented Pakistan in IBSF World Snooker Championship in Damascus last December, dominated the final with his tactical positional play and cue control.
Imran got off to a confident start by grabbing the first two frames but seasoned Sajjad blanked Imran in the third frame to make it 2-1. Shehzad then increased his lead to 3-1 before Sajjad again made it 3-2.
Later, Shehzad kept Sajjad under pressure and seized three frames in a row to storm into the final.
Semi-finals results: Imran Shahzad (Punjab) beat Muhammad Sajjad (Punjab) 6-2 (78-06, 85-46, 0-80, 72-48, 16-88, 62-17, 75-21, 63-24). Muhammad Shahid (Punjab) bt Sultan Muhammad (Sindh) 6-3 (52-43, 64- 04, 86-63, 67-58, 04-108, 39-67, 70-37, 58-46).
