Pakistan’s Naseem Akhtar wins IBSF World U18 Snooker Championship

 

Pakistan's emerging cueist Mohammad Naseem Akhtar won the third IBSF World U18 Snooker Championship in Beijing, China on Tuesday. 

With this win, Naseem has also become the first ever Pakistani to win a junior world title in snooker.

16-year-old Naseem from Sahiwal struggled in earlier frames against his opponent from China Peifan Lie and was down 3-1 after going down 62-20, 71-37, 57-19 in the first, third and fourth frame.

But the National Junior Champion, who also won the second frame 69-68, made the comeback in the 5th frame and then didn't look back, winning last four frames consecutively with the score of 127-06, 85-40, 61-37 and 74-8.

His overall victory score was 20-62, 69-68, 37-71, 19-57, 127-06, 84-40, 61-37 and 74-08.

In the semi-final, Nassem had defeated Israel’s Amir Nardela 4-0 (74-19(69), 82-0(64), 90-21, 89-42).

Earlier Naseem defeated Florian Nuble of Austria 4-1 in the quarter-finals with frame scores of 62-67, 74-7, 86-29, 74-8, 72-21, in the event contested by 48 cueists from 29 countries.

Pakistan had fielded two cueists in the event, Haris Tahir the other player from Pakistan had lost to his team mate Naseem in the round of 16.

Both the cueists will now represent the country in the U21 Championship which starts at the same venue on Wednesday.