KARACHI, Jan 28: Former Pakistan No.2 Mohammad Shafiq, making his appearance in a National ranking tournament after a lapse two years, stormed into the last 16 of the 28th Red & White National Snooker Championship, by handing out a 4-1 defeat to Saqib Butt on Tuesday at the KPT Sports Complex.

The NWFP cueist, a man of little words, made his comeback after a disasterous start. In the first encounter of the qualifying rounds Shafiq was beaten 4-1 by Atiq Latif Bux the No.7 seed. To add to his woes, Shafiq also went down 4-3 to Punjab’s exciting newcomer Imran Mughal.

But Shafiq displaying his fighting qualities fought back magnificently, brushing aside 11th seed Arifullah 4-2. Growing in stature he then breezed past Sindh’s Mohammad Baqar 4-0. Shafiq now had to beat Punjab’s Saqib Butt by a 4-1 margin in his last qualifying match to pinch the No.16 spot from Imran Mughal.

It was mentioned in these columns the day before, that this feat was not beyond Shafiq’s reach. After pinching the first frame, Shafiq dropped the second when his opponent sunk the blue, pink and black balls.

With the scores now level at 1-1, Imran Mughal waiting nervously in the wings must have thought he had an outside chance of qualifying for the knock-out stage if Shafiq dropped another frame.

But it was not to be. Moving into top gear Shafiq playing at his best, pocketed the next three frames 60/19, 45/6, 55/0, to join Atiq Latif Bux in the last 16.

For Imran Mughal, a youngster from the Punjab making his first appearance in the Nationals it was indeed a sad day. After handing out a shock 4-0 defeat to 11th seed Arifullah and then beating Mohammad Shafiq 4-3, Imran lost to Atiq Latif Bux 1-4 and then again to Saqib Butt 3-4.

Although Imran won his last match in Group G, when he trounced Mohammad Baqar 4-1, this feat was not enough to see him through to the knock-out rounds.

Shafiq and Imran both finished off with three points each, but it was Shafiq who got the green signal to advance ahead, with a plus one frame advantage.

Rambel Gul, the dangerman of the tournament although unseeded, also forced is entry into the pre-quarterfinals, after ending the pretensions of Balochistan’s Kamran Shah 4-1, who also had an outside chance of qualifying.

Another dangerous opponent from the NWFP, qualifier Shah Khan, booked his berth among the last 16, when he coolly and calmly demolished Punjab’s Farhan Noor 4-0, chalking up breaks of 43 and 64 in the opening and third frames.

In his opening match in Group E, the bearded cueist from Peshawar almost upset fifth seed Imran Shehzad, going down 3-4 after being 3-2 in front at one stage of the game, needing to pot only the blue ball to emerge the winner, which he failed to do so. After that Shah Khan never turned back, winning his next four qualifying rounds with ease.

Nauman Awan also qualifying from the provincial cup as NWFP’s fifth seed, won his third match from Group F, when he surprised Punjab’s Raja Rasheed 4-3.

This great effort however, could not take Nauman through to the qualifying rounds as defending champion Farhan Mirza had four wins and a walk-over and Sindh’s veteran cueist Mohammad Akhlas had four wins and one defeat in this group.

The most lucky qualifier was the former Sindh Cup champion Mirza Shadab Baig. Shahdab lost his last two matches, first to second seed Naveen Perwani 1-4, and then 3-4 to Balochistan’s Janan Khan, who in turn had the satisfaction of registering his first win in the competition.

Shadab’s two victories and one walk-over was enough to see him through to join Naveen Perwani in the knock-out stage from Group B. But the young man has a steep mountain to climb to reach the quarter-finals, when he meets Saleh Mohammad, the former world No.3 and currently ranked third in this competition on Wednesday morning.

In the last match of the qualifying rounds, Arshad Siddiq (NWFP) beat Irfan Rasheed Khan (Sindh) 4-3 in another match that went the full distance. Arshad Siddiq finished off his qualifying rounds with two wins and three defeats, while Irfan could only muster up one triumph against four defeats in Group D. The cueists that qualified from this group was former world and Asian champion Mohammad Yousuf ranked at No.4 and M. Faiq Malik, another exciting cueist from Punjab.

Of the 16 players in the knock out stage, seven are from Sindh, five from Punjab and four from NWFP.

Surprisingly after eight days of keen snooker no century break has been registered. Faiq Malik came the closest with 96, followed by a 94 clearance by Imran Mughal and another 94 clearance of Atiq Latif Bux. Mohammad Nazir had a fine break of 89, Mohammad Yousuf 88, Farhan Mirza 82 and Faiq Malik with 80.

Results on the eighth day:

Janan Khan bt Mirza Shadab Baig 4-3: 56/66, 26/48, 64/26, 74/0, 45/70, 61/50, 66/29. Arshad Siddiq bt Irfan Rasheed Khan 4-3: 52/22, 46/62, 64/49, 81/41, 29/69, 17/54, 71/29. Shah Khan bt Farhan Noor 4-0: 80/20, 49/29, 92/19, 66/54. Nauman Awan bt Raja Rasheed 4-3: 33/69, 66/84, 66/20, 35/55, 21/67, 55/49, 76/60. Mohammad Shafiq bt Saqib Butt 4-1: 69/32, 55/59, 60/19, 45/6, 55/0. Zafran Khan w/o Younus Amir Bux. Faisal Essa w/o Yousuf Khan.

Line-up in the pre-quarterfinals.

11.00 a.m. Best of nine frames.

Saleh Mohammad v Mirza Shahdab Baig

Mohammad Nazir v Shakeel Bhatti

Farhan Mirza v Mohammad Shafiq

Imran Shehzad v M. Faiq Malik

3.00 p.m.

Khurram Hussain Agha v Mohammad Akhlas

Abu Saim v Naveen Perwani

Atiq Latif Bux v Shah Khan

Rambel Gul v Mohammad Yousuf.