Advani to face Sarkhosh, Masih up against Wienold as Qatar 6Reds World Cup reaches semis stage
The stage is set for a grand finale of the International Billiards & Snooker Federation (IBSF) Qatar 6Reds World Cup 2021, with the semi-finalists emerging yesterday after four days of enthralling encounter at the Al Messila Resort in Doha.
Indian player and 23 time World champion Pankaj Advani will face Amir Sarkhosh of Iran, while Pakistan's Babar Masih clashes against Germany's Richard Wienold, who knocked out Ali Alobaidli of Qatar after a thrilling score of 6-4, for a chance at reaching the final later in the day.
The 6Red World Cup, which ends today, is the second of the three tournaments the Qatar Billiards & Snooker Federation (QBSF) is hosting this month. It follows the Asian Snooker Championship, which ended last Thursday with Advani emerging as the champion. The GCC Billiards and Snooker Championship, the last of the trio, will be held from September 22 to 28.
En route to the semi-finals, Advani defeated his compatriot Ishpreet Singh Chadha 6-2 to reach the medals round, while Sarkhosh knocked out Cheung Ka Wai of Hong Kong 6-3.
On the other hand, Masih knocked out his compatriot Haris Tahir in a one-sided affair 6-0 in the quarter-final match.
In one of the most entertaining matches of the tournament, Advani initially obtained three frames lead with a well-compiled break of 54. However, Chadha managed to secure one frame, but Advani was utterly focused and responded with the subsequent two frames win with a break of 38 points.
Chadha tried another recovery with a break of 70 points clearance but couldn't save the match since Advani sealed the eighth frame with a score of 32-19 and won the match 6-2.
Sarkhosh started well against Ka Wai and obtained a 2-0 lead with 60 points break in the second frame. But the Hong Kong player returned to the game with breaks of 37 and 42 and levelled the match again.
Sarkhosh replied for all the efforts of Ka Wai with a return break of 69 points and won the next frame too to maintain the lead of 4-2.
Although Ka Wai won the next frame, Sarkhosh returned with 40 points break in the eighth frame and continued his winning streak in the next frame to win the match 6-3.
In the all-Pakistani quarter-final match, a nervous Tahir appeared to be under pressure to play against his senior compatriot and failed to score on the opportunities he got. In most of the frames, Tahir appeared somehow out of reach. Masih, however, constantly dominated with the breaks of 34, 38 and 32 to reach a scoreline of 6-0.
Wienold dominated initially against Obaidli, Qatar's most successful cueist, and won the first four frames with breaks of 37 and 32 in the first and third frames. After that, Obaidli made a remarkable recovery in the match with two consecutive breaks of 31 and 47.
After losing the seventh frame, Obaidli once again returned to the game by winning the next two frames, and the score was 4-5.
The Qatari had a good chance to set a decider as he managed to take the lead in the 10th frame, but Richard got an opportunity that he converted into a score of 31 points and won the match 6-4.
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