SNOOKER – BAHRAIN’S Habib Sabah completed a clean sweep of his preliminary round matches yesterday to punch his ticket to the last 16 in the masters division of the IBSF World Snooker Championships 2025, currently being hosted by the kingdom.
Sabah was the star amongst the Bahraini cueists who wrapped up their schedule in this round-robin stage of play.
There were a total of 11 groups in the preliminaries. The top-ranked 10 competitors from the 11 group winners marched through to the round of 16, while the lowest-ranked group winner will join the 11 runners-up in a play-off phase today morning. That will determine six remaining slots to compete amongst the 16 best.
Other players who ended the preliminaries winning all of their matches were Saleh Mohammadi of Afghanistan in Group A, Shahid Aftab of Pakistan in Group B, Brijesh Damani of India in Group C, Kamal Chawla of India in Group F, Bashar Abdulmajeed of Qatar in Group G, Mohamed Shehab of the UAE in Group H, Susantha Boteju of Sri Lanka in Group J, Firas Kamil Shaba of Iraq in Group K, and Vijay Nichani of India in Group L.
They all made it forward with Sabah to the last 16, which will be played tonight from 8pm at Crowne Plaza Bahrain.
Three Bahrainis, meanwhile, were amongst those who advanced to the play-offs. They were Punait Saqer, Mohamed Alshaikh, and Hamed Dhaif.
They are joined by Manan Chandra and Rushabh Jain of India, Ammar Taqi of Kuwait, Tony Morgan of Wales, Muhammad Asif of Pakistan, Mohammed Al Joaker and Eissa Ali Al Hashmi of the UAE, Ahmed Aseeri of Saudi Arabia, and Ahmed Saif of Qatar.
The play-offs get underway at 10am at the same venue. All are welcome to attend and watch the exciting action.
Sabah finished atop Group E yesterday with his three wins from as many matches. He outplayed Al Joaker in his concluding fixture, winning 3-0 with frame scores of 68-13, 61-6, 67-50. Sabah’s result followed his previous two victories on opening day on Sunday, when he first beat Sami Al Hamrashdi of Oman 3-0 (84-0, 80-19, 61-24) and then posted a 3-0 (52-46, 70-12, 68-20) win against Mohamed Essam of Egypt.
Amongst Bahrain’s other masters participants, Saqer in Group K beat Abdul Mohsin of Qatar 3-1 (71-41, 76-19, 44-48, 54-37), but then lost to Shaba 2-3 (68-61, 41-62, 75-29, 0-55, 6-59). Saqer completed this stage with two victories.
Alshaikh won 3-0 (82-42, 60-20, 63-28) yesterday against Mohamed Abdelkader of Egypt in Group F. It was his second triumph in his three matches.
Dhaif in Group A lost 0-3 (19-66, 36-52, 14-81) to Mohammadi yesterday, splitting his two fixtures in the lone three-player pool.
In Group G, Bahrain’s Jaafar Alraees won 3-1 (55-30, 43-60, 73-29, 73-9) against Hossain Towhid of Bangladesh to claim his sole victory of the preliminary round. He, however, did not make it through to the play-offs.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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