Pakistan's Umar Khan marches into IBSF U16 World Snooker semifinal

KARACHI: Pakistan's Umar Khan has marched into the semifinal of the IBSF U16 World Snooker Championship, beating Russia's Andrei Karasov 4-1 in the quarterfinal.

16-year-old Umar Khan is still undefeated in the tournament and will meet Hungary's Bulcsú Révész in the semifinal on Saturday in the Russian city of Tyumen.

Umar kept control from the start in the quarterfinal against the Russian opponent. He won the first frame with a score of 69-19. In the second frame, the Pakistani teenager did not allow his opponent to pot even a single red ball, winning the frame 82-0 and taking a lead of 2-0. He also played a break of 49 in the second frame.

However, Karasov attempted a comeback in the third frame with a score of 26-64, but failed to keep the momentum in fourth and fifth frame when Umar led with 69-28 and 77-43 to complete a win of 4-1.

Earlier, Umar Khan downed Kirill Zhizfduk 3-0 in the pre-quarterfinal.

Khan's partner Hamza Illyas, however, went down in the pre-quarterfinal against Mina Awad of Egypt.

Hamza took the early lead by winning the first frame with a score of 67-44, but his Egyptian opponent leveled the game by winning the second 66-6. The third frame was a nail-biting one where Mina Awad potted the final black ball to take a 2-1 lead. He continued his fortunate run in the fourth frame as well to complete a 3-1 win in a best-of-seven frames game.

Mina Awad was later downed 4-3 by Hungarian Bulcsú Révész.

The 12-year-old Hungarian cueist is now set to meet Pakistan’s Umar Khan in the semi-final.