Debutant Abbas Yusufali continued with his impressive run in the Alubond Africa October Snooker Mug tournament at the Dar es Salaam Gymkhana Club (DGC) on Monday night.
Abbas, a new snooker member and uncle of captain Firoz Yusufali, recorded a 2-1 victory over vast experienced Arun Pattan in a marathon Division B match that lasted two hours and 45 minutes to book his place in last night’s semi-final against another experienced player Sajjad Salehbhai.
In a match that ran from 07:00pm to 09:45pm the winner, who had a 21-point advantage at each frame, started the game very impressively only to let his 41-14 lead flop to 44-53 and lose it to his opponent.
Pattan, who played a defensive game knowing that any mistake could give his rival an easy go, used his experience and was very calm in the first frame. Determined not to get a quarter-final disappointment Abbas came back strongly in the second of the best of three frames event.
Pattan could not match Abbas, who followed a steady run of the tournament to take it 74-44. The youngster did not repeat his first frame mistake and managed to force a decider.
In the decider each player was calm and for several minutes they applied tricky tactics forcing foul shots to each other, but in the end the game turned in favour of Abbas who won it 61-45 and progressed to the semis. Abbas said afterwards: “It was a nice game, but a tough one.
There was time when pressure overwhelmed me as this is my debut. I had to change my game a little bit. “I have to let my emotions go after winning the match in order to win the title.”
The whiz-kid was in action again last night facing Salehbhai who went through after pulling a 2-0 victory over Kishore Ramanuj in another quarter-final tie on Monday.
Captain Yusufali took on Joseph Tango in another semi-final match last nigh and the final will take place on Sunday. The tournament that involves about 30 players who are battled it out in Division A and B is expected to end on October 27.
By MBONILE BURTON, Tanzania Daily News
