SNOOKER – FIRAS Kamil Shaba of Iraq and Basher Abdulmajeed of Qatar were the first two players to advance to the masters quarter-finals yesterday in the IBSF World Snooker Championships 2025, currently being hosted by the kingdom.
Shaba and Abdulmajeed won the two round-of-16 matches that took place on the third day of play at Crowne Plaza Bahrain in Manama. Shaba defeated Susantha Boteju of Sri Lanka to march through, while Abdulmajeed beat Shahid Aftab of Pakistan.
Meanwhile, six players booked their berths in the masters last 16 yesterday after winning their respective play-off contests. They included Manan Chandra and Rushabh Jain of India, triple world champion Muhammad Asif of Pakistan, Mohammed Al Joaker of the UAE, Ali Hussein of Iraq, and Ahmed Saif of Qatar.
Following a rescheduling of the masters’ programme, the remaining matches amongst the best 16 will be played this early evening, starting from 5pm.
The quarter-finals and semis will then follow tomorrow, setting the stage for the title-decider on Friday.
Shaba won his best-of-seven clash against Boteju yesterday 4-2, with frame scores of 88-26, 76-39, 5-59, 21-47, 66-21, 72-35. He had a break of 44 in the first frame as he got off to a hot start, and after Boteju tied the proceedings at two frames apiece, Shaba regained control in the fifth when he had a 51 break.
Shaba now moves on to the last eight where he will take on the winner of the exciting all-Indian affair between Chandra and reigning men’s six-red world champion Kamal Chawla, who is the top seed in the masters knockouts.
In yesterday’s other last 16 match, Abdulmajeed defeated Aftab 4-2 (76-59, 6-77, 18-74, 74-29, 64-50, 60-47). Abdulmajeed needed to battle back from a single-frame deficit in the match. He did not register any breaks above 40, but was consistent in his scoring en route to claiming the victory. Aftab, on the other hand, had a break of 65 in taking the second frame.
Abdulmajeed will next take on the victor of the round-of-16 clash between Saif and India’s Brijesh Damani, who is the second seed of the knockout stages.
In yesterday’s play-offs, which were played best-of-five, Chandra made it through following a 3-0 (44-35, 60-2, 66-38) victory against Ammar Taqi of Kuwait. Saif joined him following his 3-2 (31-58, 62-13, 43-59, 60-19, 65-35) triumph against Ahmed Aseeri of Saudi Arabia.
Jain was a 3-0 (71-22, 83-30, 56-34) victor against Bahrain’s Hamed Dhaif, Asif dominated Tony Morgan of Wales 3-0 (74-10, 106-0, 89-11), Al Joaker overcame Punait Saqer of Bahrain 3-1 (26-70, 65-22, 85-17, 84-4), and Hussein was a 3-1 (23-52, 72-21, 75-33, 54-47) winner against Bahrain’s Mohamed Alshaikh.
The hosts have only one player in the last 16 in 2023 masters world champion and fourth seed Habib Sabah, who will be facing Jain today.
The remaining pairings pit fifth seed Mohamed Shehab of the UAE against Asif, third seed Saleh Mohammadi of Afghanistan against Al Joaker, and sixth seed Vijay Nichani of India against Hussein.
Meanwhile, matches in the world championships’ under-17 category got underway yesterday at the same venue.
There are 32 players competing, divided into eight groups for the preliminary round.
Bahrain have three entrants – Faisal Almaliki in Group A, Faisal Albasri in Group B, and Hussain Aqeel in Group H.
Almaliki lost both his matches yesterday, first 0-3 (23-68, 6-119, 32-88) to Riley Powell of Wales, and then to Aarav Sancheti of India 0-3 (23-80, 25-73, 31-65).
Albasri lost to Hong Kong’s Kai Nam Pang 0-3 (32-64, 8-72, 10-73), while Aqeel took a frame in a 1-3 (38-69, 8-50, 67-38, 31-63) defeat to Australia’s Max Handley.
Play in the under-17 continues today with the remaining final round-robin fixtures, to be followed by the last 16, starting at 8pm. The quarters and semis will be held tomorrow, and the final will take place on Friday.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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