Babar finishes at group summit in World Snooker

By our correspondent
LAHORE: The country’s solid cueist Babar Masih on Tuesday finished as Group K winner to qualify directly for last 32 when he crushed Abdulrahman Saif of the UAE 4-0 in his last group show of the IBSF World Snooker Championship in Doha.
Babar will now play in the round of 32 on Wednesday (today).
Meanwhile Mohammad Naseem Akhtar and Ahsan Ramzan lost their group matches. However they both have already qualified for the knockout stage and their fate will be known after completition of all group matches Tuesday night whether they will feature onwards in last 38 or last 32.
Babar showed a lot of determination to topple Abdulrahman Saif of the UAE with an enviable ease. He also managed three handsome breaks in his fine third straight win in the group.
The frame scores remained 88-0, 67-50, 94-4 and 102-37 in Babar’s favour. Babar managed a break of 88 in the first frame, 93 in the third frame and 91 in the fourth frame.
Meanwhile in Group F Mohammad Naseem Akhtar went 4-2 down to India’s Shrikrishna Suryanarayanan to finish as group runner-up with two wins from three matches.
Shrikrishna took a bright start when he lifted the first frame 115-16 which was also embellished with a break of 58. The Indian then doubled his lead with a 79-20 victory in the second frame. However Naseem, also the 2017 Under-18 world champion, reduced the deficit by winning the third frame 74-22 which also carried a fine break of 52.
However Shrikrishna regained his focus and lifted the fourth frane 81-0 with a super break of 81. Naseem then won the fifth frame 76-44 to reduce the deficit to 3-2. But it did not deter Shrikrishna who won the sixth frame with a 79-5 margin to seal a solid win that also enabled him to finish as group champion.
The Indian cueist fired a break of 54 in the last frame.
In Group J Ahsan Ramzan lost to Seyang Heo of South Korea 4-0.
The frame scores remained 68-37, 60-10, 73-33, 67-41 in favour of Heo.
Ahsan on Monday had downed Alexander Widau of Germany 4-3 after an epic battle to make it to the knockout stage.