Qatar’s Bashar into IBSF World Snooker Championship last 32
DOHA, November 25, 2017 - Qatar's Bashar Abdulmajeed is the lone player from the host nation left in the men's draw of the IBSF World Snooker Championship at Al Arabi Sports Club Indoor Hall on Friday.
The 35-year-old beat Poland's Grzegorz Biernadski 4-2 in their last 64 match, even as compatriots Ahmed Saif and Ali al-Obaidli crashed out. Bashar started well, securing first two frames with a 51-point break in first frame. Though he lost the next two frames, he stood strong in next two frames to beat the Polish challenge 4-2.
Al-Obaidli lost to Ross Bulman of Ireland 1-4, while Saif stretched Kevin Hanssens of Belgium till the deciding frame before bowing down 3-4. Bashar will now take on Myanmar's Ko Htet in the Last-32 stage tomorrow, with a rest day today.
In a big blow to Pakistan's campaign, as the 2012 world champion Mohamed Asif and 2017 world U18 champion Mohamed Naseem Akhtar suffered defeats on Friday.
Asif, a strong title contender, lost to Malaysia's Moh Keen Hoo 1-4, while 16-year-old Akhtar was blanked by Hong Kong's Lee Chun Wai. The Malaysian gave Asif no chance whatsoever early on to go into a 3-0 lead, before Asif pulled one back in the fourth. In the fifth frame, Moh dominated again, and armed with a 40-point break, wrapped up the match.
Lee too was in commanding form since the start, starting with a 61-point break to secure the first frame. Further ahead, he comfortably won second frame also and then sent two contributions of 54 and 53 breaks in next two frames to outclass Akhtar.
Pakistan, however, still has Mubashir Raza and Asjad Iqbal in the field. Another high profile casualty of the day was Brazil's Igor Figueiredo, who fell to Austria's Andreas Ploner 3-4 in a scrappy affair.
Ploner started very well with two clinical breaks of 55 and 77, taking a 2-0 lead. However, Igor fought back in third frame but fell short by 4 points and the deficit rose to 3.
The Brazilian 40-year-old then made a brilliant comeback to level the game 3-3, but Ploner beat him by 29 points in the final frame to secure his berth in Last-32.
Two-time champion Pankaj Advani of India had little trouble brushing aside the challenge of Yemen's Ahmed Saloomi 4-0.
Also remaining in the field are Iran's Amir Sarkhosh and last year's runner-up Andrew Pagett.
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