KARACHI  - Reigning National Champion M Asif suffered second defeat in the 28th Asian Snooker Championship being held in Doha (Qatar) going down 2-4 to Karam Fatima of Syria, according to information received here on Monday.
Sargodha-born Asif was tied two-all but Karam won the last two frames to register 73-12, 24-59, 59-25, 34-93, 80-10, 55-10 victory. Drawn in group ‘A’, Karam, who had the honour of chalking the tournament's highest break of 140, demonstrated better brand potting in pressure to record his third successive win. Earlier, top seed Aditya Mehta beat M Asif 4-2.  Debutant Sultan had made a fine start by winning his opening two group ‘C’ matches. Top two cueists from each of eight groups will qualify for the last 16 knock-out rounds.