This is amazing
Upsets mark Style Snooker C’ship quarters
KARACHI: On a day of upsets, the top three cueists of the country, Khurram Agha, Saleh Muhammad and Muhammad Yousuf, were knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Style Snooker Championship here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Thursday.
Unseeded Ramble Gul, who had stunned seventh seed Vishan Gir in the pre-quarter-finals the other day, created a sensation by edging out top-seed Khurram Hussain Agha in their quarter-final tie which went to the full distance of nine frames.
In the other quarter-final upsets, fifth seed Imran Shahzad shocked second seed and defending champion Saleh Muhammad while sixth seed Atiq Latif Bakhsh humbled third seed Muhammad Yousuf in straight frames.
The only quarter-final to produce an expected result was the one between fourth seed Naveen Kumar Perwani and unseeded Abu Saim, which was won quite comfortably by the former.
It was amazing to see the three top seeds falling apart in the quarter-finals. The top-seed Khurram had been in terrific form, having won all the four league matches quite convincingly. But he was undone by the obdurate Ramble Gul, who continued playing exceedingly well against his fancied rivals.
Khurram tried valiantly to pull it back but even his break of 72 was not enough to shake the confidence of his rival. The decisive ninth frame was clinched decisively by the supremely confident Ramble Gul.
Saleh Muhammad suffered similar fate against the ever-improving Imran Shahzad. Saleh registered a break of 76 in the fifth frame but Imran kept his cool and pressed home the advantage.
While Khurram and Saleh went down fighting, the veteran Muhammad Yousuf was blanked by the young and promising Atiq Latif Bakhsh. Yousuf, a former world champion, crashed to what
was one of the most humiliating defeats of an otherwise illustrious career.
Fourth Naveen Perwani was not perturbed by the fall of the top three seeds. He was as composed as ever while demolishing Abu Saim, who could not reproduce his earlier form of the competition.