KARACHI: Hamza Akbar produced a magical performance to dethrone defending champion Muhammad Asif Toba to breeze into the last eight round of Jubilee Insurance 40th National Snooker Championship on Friday.
Diminutive Hamza from Punjab dropped the opening frame before overpowering Asif Toba 5-2 with a superb cue control potting and tactical positional play.
Toba, who had represented Pakistan in last year's IBSF World championship in India, enjoyed 2-1 advantage after first three frames. However, he surrendered the last four frames as Hamza dominated with a breaks of 56 in the second and 54 in 6th frame.
In the longest match of the day, lasting five hours, Babar Masih overpowered former Asian junior number two Muhammad Majid Ali 5-4.
Pre-quarterfinal between Babar and Majid was tied 4-all after intense struggle. However Babar won the decider 55-53 on black ball to cruise in the quarterfinal.
World Snooker Championship runner-up Muhammad Sajjad, former IBSF World Champion Muhammad Asif won their matches without any trouble.
Shehram Changezi of Islamabad smashed a breaks of 109 and 79 in his 5-1 drubbing to Hunian Amir to enter the last eight stage. Pre-quarters results: Shahram Changezi (Isb) bt Hunain Amir (Pjb) 5-1 (32-60, 109-0, 78-22, 81-08, 93-05, 66-45), Khurram Agha (Sindh) bt Zulfiqar A.Qadir (Sindh) 5-1 (75-02, 65-46(51), 53-02, 64-31, 64-01, Muhammad Asif (Pjb) bt Abdul Sattar (Sindh) 5-0 (68-43, 77-39, 83-0, 131-0(69), 84-0(61), Muhammad Imran (Pjb) bt Amir Tariq (Pjb) 5-0 (74-09, 69-38, 65-49, 73-31, 57-08), Hamza Akbar (Pjb) bt Muhammad Asif Toba (Pjb) 5-2 (28-64(57), 71-07(56), 01-54, 61-06, 79-46, 96-11(54), 63-07), Aakash Muhammad Sajjad (Pjb) bt Rambail Gul (KPK) 5-1 (78-28, 74-47, 65-41, 0-93, 88-13, 93-01).
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