KARACHI: Reigning IBSF World Champion Muhammad Asif, Hamza Akbar and Mohammad Sajjad got Pakistan’s campaigns off in style on the opening day of the Jubilee Insurance 29th Asian Snooker Championship in Karachi on Saturday.

The Faisalabad-based Asif, top seeded for the event, smashed breaks of 78 and 119 in routing Ryan Somarathne of Sri Lanka in four straight frames.

Former Asian number two, Muhammad Sajjad, found resistance before beating Ali Jalil Ali 4-2 after a tight encounter which also saw a century break by his Iraqi opponent.

Scores were tied 2-all after Jalil carved a smart break of 101 in the third frame after being 0-2 down. But Sajjad, using all his international experience, held his nerve and grabbed the next two frames to seize the tie

National Champion Hamza Akbar dropped the penultimate frame before overpowering Yuchin from China 4-1.

Abu Saim of Pakistan suffered 4-3 defeat at the hands of Ehsan Heydarinezhad of Iran after a thrilling tie. The match was tied 3-3 after a keen tussle, however, Ehsan proved too good in the end and out-potted Saim in the all important deciding frame.

Results: Muhammad Sajjad (Pak) bt Ali Jalil Ali (Iraq) 4-2 (80-51, 58-46, 0-101(101), 53-81, 71(51)-64(58), 79-27)

Muhammad Asif (Pak) Ryan Somarathne (Sri Lanka) 4-0 (70-39, 109(78)-00, 125(119)-0, 60-32)

Hamza Akber (Pak) bt Wang Yuchin (China) 4-1 (81-07, 68-20, 85-01, 52-74(50), 53-21)

Saleh Muhammad (Afg) bt Enkhjargal Enkhbaatar (Mong) 4-1 (50-41, 01-108(98), 81(63)-43, 89-22, 61-39)

Aamir Sarkosh (iran) bt Imran Shehzad (Pak) 4-1 (24-93, 54-37, 83(69)-32, 74(74)-0, 74(51)-0)

Omar Al Kojah (Sya) bt Yuttapop Pakpoj (Thai)4-2 ( 70-58, 21-73, 68-46, 22-83, 69-61, 64-55)

Fung Kwok Wai (H-k) bt Mohsen Aziz Bukhshaisha (Qat) 4-2 (86(55)-26, 65-60, 60-10, 23-82(59), 16-96(89), 110(77)-0)

Ehsan Heydarinezhad (Iran) bt Abu Saim (Pak) 4-3 (82-31, 78-46, 1-87, 55-67, 84-48, 35-60, 91-26)