Easy sailing for top seed in 4th KP Jr Snooker

PESHAWAR: Easy sailing for top seed as Raja Akaash, second seed Fawad Khan, third seeded Shoaib Khan and fourth seeded Asad Khan marched into the semi-finals after recorded victories in the quarter-finals of the ongoing 4th Khyber Pakthunkhwa Junior Snooker Championship being played here at Green Snooker Club on Friday.

Apart from the second third quarter-finals, all the seeding players recorded victories in straight sets and the sitting spectators largely enjoyed the beautiful display of snooker. Raja Akaash recorded victory against Kashif Khan in straight set. Raja Akaash, hope for the Khyber Paktunkhwa, won the first frame by 60-48. He had a break of 50 when he staged a comeback against Kashif who was leading by 10-48.

Raja Akaash also recorded another break of 50 in the second frame he won by 61-14 and similarly a vital break of 70 in the third frame he won by 85-29.

Kashif Khan also did some resistance and took the lead in the first and second frames but he made many errors, which benefit Raja at the end. In the second quarter-final second seed Fawad Khan beat Salman Khan in straight frames, the score was 61-27, 39-29 and 60-11. Apart from the third frame where Fawad Khan recorded a break of 45 points, otherwise no thrill was witnessed in the match.

In the third quarter-final Shoaib Khan upset Rameez Khan in the thrilling match where both the players stretched to five frames. Shoaib failed to click in the first frame won by Rameez Khan and similar Rameez got the second frame by 23-54. Having two frames lead, Rameez could not carry his form and lost the match by 3-2. Shoaib Khan after losing the first two frames, came back strongly by winning three consecutive frames on 68-16, 49-14 and 65-54. There was tough fight witnessed in the last and decisive frames but at the end, Shoaib with better strategy got the frame after a close contest.

In the last quarter-final Asad Khan beat Ali Haider by 3-0, the score was 37-21, 56-49 and 61-26. Asad did not give much time to Ali Haider, the qualifier, to come back into the match and raced up to victory with his excellent potting. (APP)