Naseem claims U-18 snooker title in style
ISLAMABAD: Keeping his supremacy intact, Naseem Akhtar comfortably defeated Shaikh Mudassir to claim the U-18 title in the Jubilee Insurance National Junior Snooker Championships on Wednesday.
Dominating the proceedings throughout the title-deciding contest, Punjab’s Naseem blanked his province-mate Mudassir 5-0, never giving any chance to his opponent to settle down.
Naseem’s victory was embellished with two breaks. During the second frame, he made a superlative break of 63 and then in the fourth frame he registered a break of 56 to comfortably seize the title here at Pakistan Sports Complex’s Billiard and Snooker Hall.
The frame scores were 64-06, 64-13 (63), 72-26, 99-22 (56), 55-25.
It is relevant to mention here that throughout the championship Naseem didn’t even lose a single frame.
Earlier, in the U-21 semi-finals, Naseem defeated Umar Farooq of Punjab 5-0 (102-17, 73-08, 83-11, 110-23 (70), 70-34). In the final, he will face Haris Tahir, also of Punjab, on Thursday.
Haris, the runner-up at the last edition of the U-21 national championship, outclassed Mohammad Rafiq of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 5-0 (69-57, 58-26, 77-40, 76-01 (75), 68-0 (62). Haris decorated his victory with a break of 75 in the fourth frame — the highest so far in the U-21 championship.
Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2017