44th National Snooker Championship 2019 cues off today
Over a dozen cueists, qualifiers and juniors, will make their debut when the 44th National Snooker Championship cues off at the Karachi Gymkhana Billiards Hall, Karachi.
Over a dozen cueists, qualifiers and juniors, will make their debut when the 44th National Snooker Championship cues off at the Karachi Gymkhana Billiards Hall, Karachi.
The 13 players who are expected to make their maiden appearance in the country’s premier snooker event includes Mohammad Mudassir, Rabish Pervez, M. Hamza Ilyas, M. Rizwan Hashmi, Ahsan Ramzan, Abdul Jalil, Ali Raza, Mohammad Saleem, Mirza Waqas Baig, Rashid Aziz, Ameer Hamza Khan, Syed Habib Shah and Abdul Hameed.
Four players including incumbent champion Mohammad Asif who have laid their hands on the national title, are among the 56 participants the other three being Mohammad Bilal, Mohammad Sajjad and Shahid Aftab.
Rawalpindi-based Babar Masih, meanwhile, heads the seedings and has been placed in group A. He is followed by Asif, Zulfiqar A Qadir, Mohammad Majid Ali, Bilal, Sharjeel Mehmood, Shahid and Rambel Gul.
Babar had a consistent run in the second half of last year winning the third ranking tournament besides tasting 6-8 defeat at the hands of Sajjad’s sibling Mohammad Ijaz in the NBP Cup final.
Seasoned Zulfiqar Qadir, Sharjeel, Rambel Gul, Sohail Shehzad and Abdul Sattar have the ability to pose serious threat to the trio of Babar, Asif and Bilal.
Rising cueist Majid, who clinched bronze in the IBSF 6-Reds event at Marsa Alam late last year, can prove to be the dark horse. He has grew his stature after stepping into men category and occupied fourth slot in the seeding besides being the youngest among top eight.
There were lot of expectations from Mohammad Naseem Akhtar after he won the world junior title but he has lacked since then.
Today's Fixtures:
