Pakistan’s snooker prodigy Hamza Ilyas beat China’s Dong Zhao by 3-2 after a thrilling match in the World Under-21 Snooker Championship on Friday in Saudia Arabia.
Hamza won the first two sets but was soon pushed back as the Chinese cueist equalled the game 2-2.
Despite trailing by 15 points on the brown ball, Hamza held his nerves to clear the last four colours and grabbed the victory to qualify for the pre-quarter-finals.
Hamza won two out of three group matches and qualified for the knockout round.
Earlier on Thursday (July 13), Ahsan Ramzan beat India’s Shanm Alwin by 3-0.
Playing a break of 100 in the third frame, Ahsan grabbed the victory with the scores of 17-82, 18-82 and 0-125.
Ahsan, 17, won two out of three group matches. He defeated the Egyptian player in the first match. However, he was handed out a defeat by Tirdad Azadipur of Iran in the second match.
Ramzan has also qualified for the pre-quarter-finals and will be in action later tonight.
It must be noted that Ramzan won the Asian Under-21 Snooker Championship in Iran by defeating Iran's 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.