SNOOKER – THREE-TIME snooker world champion Muhammad Asif of Pakistan and Brijesh Damani of India set up last night a mouth-watering clash for the masters title in the IBSF World Snooker Championships 2025, currently being hosted by the kingdom.
Asif secured his place in the final after defeating India’s Manan Chandra in the last four and Bahrain’s superstar cueist Habib Sabah in the round of eight on a busy day of play at Crowne Plaza Bahrain.
Damani also posted big wins in his two knockout matches yesterday, beating countryman Vijay Nichani in the semi-finals after earlier taking down Qatari Bashar Abdulmajeed in the quarters.
The masters final is set to be played tonight at the same venue.
Also as part of yesterday’s programme in the worlds, Muhammad Hasnain of Pakistan advanced to the men’s under-17 final, where he will take on Riley Powell of Wales for their world title.
Sixteen-year-old Hasnain needed to outplay a pair of talented Polish opponents in Oliwier Nizialek and Krzysztof Czapnik en route to the gold medal contest. Powell, also 16, defeated China’s Chen Qien and Hong Kong’s Shaun Liu to make it through.
Their championship clash is also slated for this evening. All are welcome to attend and enjoy the world-class snooker action.
Elsewhere today, play in the men’s six-red and men’s under-21 competitions get underway.
There are 60 players competing in the six-red event, and they have been divided into 15 groups of four for their preliminary round. Bahrain have eight participants in the fray, including Sabah, Jaafar Alraees, Abdulla Alaali, Mohamed Alshaikh, Hamed Dhaif, Khalil Busaif, Abdulla Mohammed, and Punait Saqer.
In the under-21s, 59 players are entered. They will be battling it out in 14 four-player groups and one with three players. There are also eight Bahrainis going for gold in this division. They include Alaali, Mohammed, Hussain Aqeel, Faisal Almaliki, Salem Alazri, Mahmood Ahmed, Faisal Albasri, and Abdulla Alhalwaki.
Matches in both events are set to continue until the world championships’ last day on Thursday next week.
This year’s world championships are taking place under the patronage of Supreme Council for Youth and Sports first deputy chairman, General Sports Authority chairman, and Bahrain Olympic Committee president Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
In last night’s masters semi-finals, Asif overcame a frame deficit to defeat Chandra 4-2 (118-6, 0-84, 25-76, 97-11, 87-62, 72-41). He had a 67 break in the first frame and then nearly registered an impressive century break in frame four. In his quarters contest against Sabah, Asif broke Bahraini hearts in defeating the hometown hero 4-0 (68-8, 57-37, 68-8, 81-40). Asif had breaks of 68 in both the first and third frames, and then scored a 40 in the closer.
Damani secured his place in the masters final after battling past Nichani 4-2 (81-21, 0-83, 6-76, 64-33, 67-55, 65-43). He did well to bounce back after falling behind in the third frame, scoring a 40 break in the next which helped him level the proceedings. Damani began play yesterday with a 4-1 (61-50, 70-45, 61-66, 85-26, 68-61) triumph against Abdulmajeed, posting a 67 break in frame five.
In yesterday’s men’s under-17 competition, Hasnain beat Nizialek 4-0 (76-1, 69-8, 88-0, 62-37) to advance to the final. He registered two good breaks of 41 and 34 in the first frame, and then followed those up with 46 and 42 breaks in frame three. In the quarters, Hasnain shrugged off a rough start to beat Czapnik 3-1 (1-78, 92-1, 67-45, 58-16). He had breaks of 46 and 60 in the second and third frames, respectively.
For Powell, he punched his ticket to the gold medal match with a resounding 4-0 (90-0, 71-52, 70-12, 75-6) against Qien. He had breaks above 30 in all four frames, registering 44, 41, 63, and 53 in an impressive performance. Powell earlier needed to dig deep to claim a tough 3-2 (27-67, 57-14, 55-24, 18-67, 58-48) victory against Liu in the last eight.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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