Pakistan's Ahsan Ramzan and Hamza Ilyas have both made it to the quarter-finals of the World U21 Snooker Championship on Friday (July 14) in Saudia Arabia.
In the pre-quarter-finals, Ahsan defeated India's Rayaan Razmi 4-2 after a thrilling encounter that lasted for a total of six sets.
Ahsan won the first set with a score of 75-56 but then Razmi's comeback pushed the Pakistani to the wall as he won back-to-back sets with scores of 61-39, 65-17 and got a grip over the game.
However, Ahsan showed excellent resilience and won three successive sets with scores of 73-40, 81-16, and 64-34 and secured his place in the quarter-finals.
He will face Liam Davies of Wales in the quarter-finals which will be played on Saturday.
On the other hand, Hamza stunned Hong Kong's Lee Chun Fung by 4-0 and marched his way to the quarter-finals.
Hamza's won the game with scores of 21-86, 4-84, 17-72 and 9-109 including a break of 108 in the last frame.
He will face India's Dharav Patel in the quarter-finals.
Earlier in the pre-quarter-finals, Hamza defeated China’s Dong Zhao by 3-2 in a thrilling match while Ahsan beat Saudia Arab's Omar al-Thani.
Both Hamza and Ahsan won two out of three group matches and qualified for the pre-quarter-finals.
Born in 2005, Ahsan won the Asian Under-21 Snooker Championship in Iran by defeating hosts' Malad Pourali by five-two in the final in June.
It is appropriate to mention that the young snooker sensation Ahsan impressed the world with his precision in the IBSF Snooker World Championship 2022 as he orchestrated an astounding comeback in the final against Iran’s Amir Sarkhosh from 4-2 down to eventually triumphing 6-5 and became the second-youngest cueist to seize the prestigious title.
Furthermore, Ahsan is only the third snooker player from Pakistan to win the international amateur world title after Muhammad Yousaf, who achieved the feat in 1994.
It has to be mentioned that Ahsan has already won the national U17, U18 and U19 titles, while he ended up as runner-up in the U21 championship.
Faizan Lakhani Faizan Lakhani is Deputy Editor (Sports) at Geo News.