• Home
• /
• Business

UAE’s Kamali advances

The UAE’s Khalid Kamali went down fighting 2-4 to Zhou Yuelong of China in his last Group G clash of the 2012 Asian Under-21 Snooker Championship on Thursday morning, but still marched into last 16 stage in Goa, India.

However, the other two UAE players, Badr Obaid and Omer Ahmed Hashem, crashed out of tournament after losing their respective matches.

Aloysius Yapp of Singapore handed Obaid a 4-1 defeat on Wednesday night. Obaid has one more match to play but it will be of no significance as far as his chances of making the knockout stage line-up are concerned.

Hashem was beaten Mundir Sherazi of India 4-1 on Wednesday evening and later on Thursday morning he sustained another 4-0 loss at the hands of Amir Sarkhosh of Iran. Hashem has completed his quota of three Group F first round matches, losing all.

Kamali, who earlier scored victories over Brendan Chia of Singpore and Abdulla Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, put up a tough fight against Zhou in his last first round, round robin match. The seventh seeded Kamali conceded the first frame 66-44, but got even with his opponent by grabbing the second 66-52.

The third frame was only one in which Zhou had been able to wrest full control from Kamali as a break of 55 points led him to a 126-17 win and gave him a 2-1 lead. The unsung Chinese succeeded in capturing the fourth 63-61 on the final black. Kamali took the fifth 60-52 in almost similar fashion and his campaign ended in the next frame when Zhou cruised home 83-50 after a tough battle.

Yesterday, Kamali had been assured of a place in the last 16 stage after registering his second straight victory as he routed Abdulla Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia 4-0 with ease in his second Group G encounter.

The seventh seeded Kamali had complete control over the proceedings from the word go, as is reflected by frame scores of 81-18, 98-05, 77-20 and 73-31. Top seeded and reigning world champion Hossein Vafaei of Iran started his campaign with a big bang when scored a break of 137 points in his first frame of the tournament before hammering Marcus Lim of Singapore 4-0.

Sixth seeded Thai Akani Songsermsawad, meanwhile, regained form and brightened his chances of making it to the second stage of the championship by whitewashing Slyavosh Mozayani of Iran 4-0 with the help of a spectacular break of 128.

A total of 32 players from 10 countries are vying for the top honours at this year’s Asian youth event.