KARACHI: Pakistani cueists Asjad Iqbal and Awais Munir emerged victorious in a display of outstanding performance on the day one of the Snooker World Cup in Mongolia. The duo separately secured victories in each of their games without dropping a single frame.

In his first match, Iqbal defeated Mongolia’s Batarkhuu Naranhuu with a score of 3-0, the frames ending 71-38, 71-51, and 110-32. In the second match, Asjad also triumphed over Japan’s Junji Miyazawa, again without dropping a frame, with scores of 68-18, 63-11, and 83-01.

Meanwhile, Munir won his first match against Mongolia’s Kash Uchjir, with frame scores of 60-17, 62-12, and 81-09. In his second match, Munir defeated Oman’s Hussain Al-Wati without losing a frame, with scores of 68-06, 10175-12, and 83-15.

Remember, both departed from Karachi on Thursday to participate in the Mongolia World Cup as well as the World 6-Red Snooker Championship. Munir’s coach, Shoaib Arif, banked on the cueist’s remarkable track record and added that he is well-prepared for the tournaments. “As a coach, I can say Awais Munir is well prepared for the tournaments and by the will of Almighty Allah, he will succeed and bring joy to the nation, said Arif.

It must be noted Awais is the only Pakistani cueist to make it to the finals in his first three international tournaments, winning one of them. Thus, he has one gold and two silver medals to his name. He won the Asian 6-Red Snooker Championship after beating Hong Kong’s Nansen Wan in the final back in July.

Munir secured a 6-3 victory with the scores of 0-65, 35-26, 27-36, 38-20, 0-65, 13-46, 8-60, 34-0, 27-40. He had qualified for the final after defeating countryman Asjad Iqbal 5-2 in the semi-final a day earlier. He secured victory by winning five consecutive frames after initially trailing Iqbal 0-2.