Muzammil Hussain shines in World 9-Ball Championship
DOHA, December 10, 2017-On a day when former champions Mika Immonen, Thorsten Hohmann and Alex Pagulayan suffered defeats, Austria's Albin Ouschan opened his title defence with a victory in the World 9-Ball Championship at Al Arabi Sports Club here yesterday.
Qatar's Muzammil Hussain, who made it to the main draw through qualifying, registered a 9-7 win over South Korea's Junho Lee in the first session yesterday.
Hussain, after having made through three gruelling rounds of qualifying, rallied back from a 1-3 deficit against Lee.
The 41-year-old then swept four straight frames for a 6-4 lead, before going 8-5 up. Lee, however, still had fight left, winning two straight frames to bring it threateningly close at 7-8, but Hussain closed it out in the next.
“I qualified from stage 1 and that's a lot of hard work with three sessions, and then qualifying from the last chance, the decider. I did really well," Hussain told Gulf Times yesterday.
“So today it set me up well for the match against him. He is a good player and I am very happy to have won against him. I hope to do well in the next round, taking one match at a time."
The grind of coming through qualifying has not dented Hussain's energy, who said, “I am trying to win more. It's a lot pressure to come through the qualifying but I am pushing myself hard, putting in hours of practice. I will do my best in the coming rounds."
Hussain next faces Philippine world number nine Jeffrey Du Luna, who made short work of Algeria's Mohamed El Raousti yesterday with a 9-1 win.
Later yesterday, Ouschan was up against Qatar's Abdulatif Alfawal, who stayed neck and neck with the defending champion early on at 2-2 before the 27-year-old from Austria slowly pulled away.
In the 13th frame, Ouschan miscued a straightforward three-ball and Alfawal, who along with Waleed Majid won the Arab Billiards Championship in Beirut, Lebanon, recently, wrapped up the frame to take the score to 5-8.
However, the world number three didn't leave it for long, wrapping up the win in the next frame, to set up a match with Hsieh Chia Chen of Taipei today.
“It was a tough match. I didn't play that good. The only thing I did really well was my defensive game. I played good in the end; miscued on almost the last rack. Overall I played good but I can play much, much better," Ouschan told Gulf Times yesterday.
Talking about his opponent, Ouschan said, “He breaks a little bit too soft. If he breaks like five percent harder, he will get much more precision on the one ball. That's maybe one thing. But overall he played more than okay."
Alfawal too rued his performance on the break. “I played with a top player in the world. That gives me confidence. But I had a problem with my break; did not get the one ball. I did well in the rest of the game, and while I practiced a lot on the break ahead of the tournament, the breaks just didn't work," the 36-year-old said.
“I had to use safety quite often. But I think if my break works like it does during practice, the score will be much better."
Alfawal's teammate from the Arab Billiards Championship, Majid, lost 1-9 to Germany's Sebastian Ludwig.
Another Qatar player in the line-up, Bashar Abdulmajeed was narrowly edged out in a thriller by Iraq's Abdulkhizar Hasanin 8-9.
Abdulmajeed will now face 2013 champion Hohmann of Germany, who lost to Lithuanian 20-year-old Pijus Labutis 3-9 yesterday.
In a clash between former champions, 2011 champion Yukio Akagariyama of Japan won a thriller over 2004 champion Pagulayan of Canada. Akagariyama won 9-8.
In the first session of the day, 2001 champion Immonen lost out against Kwang Chan Keng of Singapore in a see-saw of a match.
The 37-year-old Singaporean went 4-0 up before the 44-year-old Finn went level with four straight frames. Kwang took the next four games for a healthy 8-4 lead, before Immonen pulled back two. However, it was too little too late, and Kwang took the next frame to reach the next round, while Immonen moved to the losers' bracket.
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