• Home
• /
• Local Sports

Shehab’s brilliant run comes to an end

Mohamed Shehab’s brilliant run in the Selangor Open finally came to a halt in the semi-finals when he suffered a 6-1 loss at the hands of Imtiaz Serwer of Pakistan in the seven-nation event on Friday, a press release said.

The other UAE cueist taking part in the tournament, Mohammed Al Joaker, went down fighting to Elvin Lean of Malaysia after he was edged 5-4 in the last 16 round encounter on Thursday.

Shehab, a former Asian Indoor Games gold medallist, was in a great touch when he defeated KL Tan of Malaysia 5-3 in the last 16 round. Later on Thursday evening, he carried the same form to the quarter-finals where he gunned down high-flying Malaysian Roslan Yurnalis 5-3 to enter the semi-finals of the event, which saw the participation of 48 players.

Shehab, whose 117-point break scored in the first round continues to be the highest of the tournament, could not play to the best of his potential against Serwer, to whom he had lost 3-2 in the round robin stage as well.

The earlier upshot had also put Shehab under some amount of pressure before the semi-final, but it was basically his safety that let him down on Friday afternoon.

Shehab said after the match: “Without taking away anything away from him, it was my own mistakes that cost me the match.

“His safety worked very well today and he was able to push me into situations where I was forced to make mistakes. I simply couldn’t get the cue ball close enough to the cushions to make things difficult for him. Throughout the tournament, I was able to score easily but today Serwer simply did not give me any chance. I need to work more on my safety when I return to the practice table”.

Meanwhile, the three-member UAE squad left Dubai on Friday for Doha to participate in the World 9-ball Pool Championship, which commences on Saturday.