ISLAMABAD - Twelve players including top seed Umer Farooq (Punjab), defending champion M Naseem Akhtar (Punjab) and M Haris Tahir (Punjab) qualified for the knockout stage of the Jubilee Insurance 10th National Junior U-21 Snooker Championship 2018, after winning their respective matches played here at PSB Billiards & Snooker Hall on Monday.

Others, who also qualified for the pre-quarterfinals were Ali Zaman Khan (Sindh); Raees Ali Usama and Hamza Aftab (KP), Usman Khurshid (KP), Rabish Pervaiz (Bal), Fahad Ghaffar (ISB), Abdul Aziz (Bal) and Shahzaib Malik (Bal).

As many as 16 matches were played in the league round. Usman Ahmed (Pjb) beat Atif Arshad (KP) 3-0, M Rafiq (KP) beat Yasir Nouman (Sindh) 3-1, Sohaib Usman (Isb) beat Aqib Nawaz (Sindh) 3-0, Ahsan Ramzan (Pjb) beat Altaf Hussain (Bal) 3-0, Usman Khurshid (KP) beat Syed Adil Shah (Bal) 3-1, Rabish Pervez (Bal) beat Bilal Ali Khan (Sindh) 3-0, M Shahbaz (Pjb) beat Fahad Ghaffar (Isb) 3-1, Fahad Ali (KP) beat Siddiq Khan (Sindh) 3-2, Yasir Ahmed (Bal) beat Umer Farooq (Pjb) 3-2, Hamza Aftab (KP) beat Sheheryar Khan (Sindh) 3-0, M Naseem Akhtar (Pjb) beat Aqib Nawaz (Sindh) 3-0, Haris Tahir (Pjb) beat Ahsan Ramzan (Pjb) 3-0, Ali Zaman Khan (Sindh) beat Sheikh Ahmed (KP) 3-2, Raees Ali Usama (Pjb) beat M Mehmood Ahmed (Isb) 3-1, Usman Ahmed (Pjb) beat Sohaib Usman (Isb) 3-1, M Rafiq (KP) beat Altaf Hussain (Bal) 3-0.

Our Staff Reporter