COLOMBO: Pakistan’s cueists Mohammad Asif and Muhammad Naseem Akhtar won their respective opening matches at the 3rd SAARC Snooker Championship here at the Moors Sports Club on Tuesday.
Three-time world snooker champion Asif won two matches on the opening day of the tournament to showcase his brilliance in the sport.
Asif competed with Sri Lanka’s Murugesu Prathap in his opening duel and secured a perfect 4-0 victory to script a flamboyant start to his campaign.
The seasoned cueist then locked horns with Bangladesh’s Ahmed Nizam Uddin and clinched not all but equally thumping victory, winning the duel 4-1.
Another national cueist Naseem came up against Sri Lanka’s 19-time national champion Susantha Boteju and raced to a resounding victory without dropping a single frame.
Naseem got off to a flying start to the match as he outclassed Boteju in the first frame with the score of 82-15. He was equally impressive in the next two frames, winning them by 69-25 and 62-30 to move one frame within the victory.
Boteju finally showed some resistance in the deciding frame but an untimely error on the black allowed Naseem to pull ahead and eventually emerging victorious by 63-37.
The ongoing tournament is the third edition of the SAARC Snooker Championship, with the previous two editions held in Bangladesh.
Pakistan’s Asjad Iqbal won the inaugural edition in 2019 by defeating compatriot Mohammad Bilaal, while India’s Ishpreet Singh Chadha won the second title in 2012 by defeating fellow countryman Brijesh Damani.
Faizan Lakhani Faizan Lakhani is Deputy Editor (Sports) at Geo News.- Mohammad Asif