Haris reaches last eight as Raheem falters

Reigning national under-18 champion Haris Tahir crossed yet another hurdle by cruising into the last eight as junior international Abdul Raheem followed in the footsteps of Mohammad Saqib by making exit in the 17th Asian under-21 snooker championship at Colombo on Sunday.

According to results available here, Tahir made a remarkable comeback from two frames down to post 4-2 victory over Hong Kong’s Man Hoi Leong in the best of seven frames last-16 encounter.

After conceding the opening two frames 50-63 and 51-75, Tahir piled up a solid break of 63 in the third frame not only to win it 76-1 but from then onwards there was no stopping as he won the next three frames 61-39, 63-31, 75-29 in a row.

Tahir is drawn to meet China’s Wang Yuchen in the best of nine frames quarter-finals after the latter sent another Pakistani contender Raheem packing 4-2 in the other match.

The Chinese cueist hammered back-to-back breaks of 51 and 122 in the second and third frames to conjure up 8-104, 84-33, 133-0, 37-79, 50-39, 99-39 victory.

Raheem had a brisk start when he won the first frame and again drew level at two-all, thanks to a break of 50 but could not maintain with the pace and lost.

Results:

Last-16 round:

Wang Yuchen (China) bt Abdul Raheem 4-2 (8-104, 84-33, 133-0, 37-79, 50-39, 99-39); Haris Tahir bt Man Hoi Leong (Hong Kong) 4-2 (50-63, 51-75, 76-1, 61-39, 63-31, 75-29).

(Source: Dawn News)