Qatar’s Bashar edges out Balsara to reach knockouts
DOHA, November 22, 2017 - Qatar's Bashar Abdulmajeed was taken the full distance by Omar Balsara of the United States before notching his third victory in the round robin stages to make it to the knockout stages of the 2017 IBSF World Snooker Championship at Al Arabi Sports Club Indoor Hall on Tuesday.
Having won the first frame with a 58-point break, Bashar lost the second, which was well controlled by Balsara with a 62-point break. From there on both won alternate frames and stayed level after six frames, having won three apiece. The decider saw both the players in a battle of attrition, with Bashar eventually coming out on top, courtesy some high-quality safety shots.
Bashar, who won three out of his four round robin matches, finished second in Group C and made it to the last-64. In another match, India's Laxman Rawat stitched together two century breaks apart from a 91 to beat Luo Honghao of China 4-1.
After winning the scrappy first frame, Rawat lost the second after the Chinese player had a century break of his own – 109 points. Luo was hoping to take the lead but lost the position after putting 46 on board.
The Indian responded with a 91-point clearance to take that frame, before wrapping up the game 4-1 powered by two centuries in next two frames (101, 100). In a curious turn of events, Malaysia's Moh Keen Hoo was warned by the referee for conceding the second frame in the match against Jack Bradford.
Moh didn't score much in the first and the second frames. The score was 2-38 with 67 available when he opted to concede the frame. Though he scored a break of 62 to recover in third but faltered in next two frames and lost 1-4 against the Welshman. Team manager later defended Moh, saying that the player had struggled to see the angles properly, and hence he conceded.
Last year's runner-up Andrew Pagett stayed unbeaten with a 4-0 win over Mohamed Lababi of Iran, while two-time IBSF snooker champion Pankaj Advani beat Qatar's Khamis al-Obaidli 4-1 to stay unbeaten. Qatar's Ali al-Obaidli posted a win beating Ukraine's Anton Kazakov 4-1.
Among the women, Amee Kamani's winning streak at the event came to an end at the hands of former European champion Tatjana Vasiljeva. India's Kamani, also world number two, has now completed her group stage matches with three wins out of four. However, Vasiljeva is now in comfortable position to top the group, which will allow her to advance to quarter-finals directly.
Vasiljeva and Kamani were level after the first two frames. In the third frame, the Latvian edged out her Indian rival 57-51, before two breaks of 32 and 48 helped her close out the match 3-1.
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