KARACHI, July 28: Rambel Gul, who recently won the Styles snooker tournament, caused a major upset in the Snooker Cup, sending top seed and Pakistan No 1 Khurram Hussain Agha packing, in the pre-quarterfinals played on Wednesday at the Snooker Area parlour in Gizri.

Playing with a lot of aggression, Rambel snatched the first two frames running up a 2-0 lead, helped on with a break of 40 in the opener. Getting into his strides Khurram picked up the next frame and although Rambel chalked up a break of 48, it was Khurram who pocketed the next frame 63/58, to draw abreast 2-2.

Taking an early lead in the fifth, Rambel was soon overtaken by his opponent Khurram, extending his lead to 31 points. Unruffled with the outcome, Rambel slowly climbed back into contention and was now 3-2 in front coming from behind to win 67/59.

Scoring 48 points on the trot, Rambel scored 65 points before Khurram opened his account in the following frame, which forced the top seed surrender the sixth with three reds and the coloured balls on the table.

Leading 4-2 and only a frame away from victory, Rambel potting excellently, continued where he had left off and sounding another quick break of 38 points picked up the seventh frame 72/40 which sealed the top seed's doom.

Only two months ago Rambel beat Khurram in the quarterfinals during the Styles snooker tournament 5-4 and proved to many on Wednesday, that his earlier triumph over the Pakistan No 1 was no flash in the pan.

In another upset registered on Wednesday, Punjab's Mohammad Nazir ended the winning run of fourth seed Imran Shehzad 5-3. Imran who seemed to be in tremendous form chalking up high breaks including the 122 he registered the previous evening, seemed to be in fine fettle with breaks of 72 and 72 in the sixth and seventh frames.

He also was comfortably in front in three frames that he lost. Nazir however clung on like a leech and with fine clearances in all three frames, pocketed the match in his favour.

In a nail-biting photo finish, Punjab's Abu Saim edged out Balochistan's Kamran Shah 5-4, with the black ball deciding the issue. Kamran helped on with a break of 45 was leading 2-1 after losing the opening frame, only to see Abu draw abreast at 2-2 and even go ahead 3-2, notching up 46 points on the trot.

Kamran fought his way back into contention taking over the lead again 4-3, winning the next two frames. Throwing caution to the wind Abu levelled the frame scores 4-4, but was soon in the doldrums when Kamran scored 51 points before Abu could open his account.

Suddenly Abu was back in contention. Chalking up a fine break of 50 points he was only one point behind his opponent. But with only one red and the coloured balls to play for Abu played an absolutely rash shot on the red which presented Kamran with a sitter in the left hand top pocket.

Potting red with black and following it up with yellow and green, Kamran was now 14 points ahead 64/50. Abu did manage to sink the brown drawing closer 64/54. But when Kamran potted blue he was 69/54 in front, leading by 15 points with only 13 points (pink and black) left on the table.

Many a cueist would have surrendered the match at this stage, but Abu with a glimmer of hope fought on. After a few visits to the table, Abu snookered Kamran behind the black ball which the latter failed to break, giving away four vital points.

The score was still in Kamran's favour 69/59, when he presented Abu with a sitter pink in the centre pocket. Taking his time Abu potted pink and followed it up with a fairly difficult shot on the black, throwing his arms up in jubilation when the last ball sunk into the pocket.

Second seed Mohammad Yousuf had the a fairly easy path into the last eight by handing out a 5-1 defeat to Masood Ahmed. Second seed Saleh Mohammad seemed in a state of bother losing the first two frames to dangerous Shah Khan also from the NWFP. But the current world No 2 got down to brass tacks and scoring heavily in the last five frames brushed aside Shah 5-2.

Atiq Latif Bux with handsome breaks of 100, 40 and 44 ran up a comfortable 3-0 lead against Shehram Changezi, before the young lad from Punjab hit back winning the next two frames potting almost everything in sight.

Unseeded Farukh Usman playing in a ranking tournament for the very first time, did himself proud by reaching the last 16, before bowing out 5-2 to sixth seed Minhas Malik, who had a break of 53 points in the final frame.

Faisalabad's lanky cueist Mohammad Asif also reached the quarterfinal, shutting out veteran Mohammad Akhlas 5-2 and will meet Minhas for a berth in the semifinals.

FOLLOWING WERE THE PRE-QUARTERFINALS RESULTS: