Hasnain and Asif create history for Pakistan

Express Tribune

6 days ago

Pakistan's Hasnain Akhtar (first from left) and Muhammad Asif (third from left) hold their U17 and Masters trophies with the IBSF officials in Manama. PHOTO COURTESY: PBSA
Pakistan's Hasnain Akhtar and the three-time IBSF men's world champion Muhammad Asif pushed the envelope for the country at the IBSF World Masters, U17, U21 & Men 6Red Snooker Championships 2025 when they both won the world titles in the U17 and Masters event on Friday night in Manama, Bahrain.
The teenager from Karachi, Hasnain, delivered a stellar performance at his debut in the tournament throughout and won the U17 title in style as he defeated Welsh player Riley Powell 4-0 (86(44)-7, 73-35, 50-31, 98(67)-4) in a one-sided final.
He had won the Asian U21 title in Riyadh last year, and according to the Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association Secretary and international referee Naveed Kapadia, Hasanain has won the title that no other Pakistani has won in the past, and he created history by not just winning it but also dropping only one frame throughout the championship.
"First of all, I would like to thank Allah that I got the opportunity to compete in this tournament," the newly crowned IBSF U17 champion said in a video message to the media. "This was my debut in the world championship, and my thoughts were that I would compete here and play my game the best I could because you never know with the results, anything can happen, but I just played my game the best I could, and Allah granted me this win.
"I want to thank the PBSA who helped me and supported me to come here."
Kapadia, who has been not only the secretary for the PBSA, but also an international referee at the Asian and IBSF events and the man who looks after the cueists in both international and national events, deemed the performances on Friday night as extraordinary, as he understands how the competition in every edition of the IBSF World Championships is improving.
"The championship results have given us the two titles that we have never won before.
"We never won any title at the U17 at IBSF World Championships, so that is a first, and then when it comes to Asif, he has just won us the IBSF masters title after 19 years. Before him, only Muhammad Yousaf won it.
"Asif ended that 19-year drought."
Kapadia praised Hasnain for the campaign in which we remained dominant throughout the championship.
"If you look at Hasnain's results, they are phenomenal from start to finish. He was confident, and we didn't see him lose focus or go down in any of his matches."
"Similarly, Asif defeated UAE's top player, Mohamed Shehab 4-2 in the pre-quarterfinal, then he defeated the team champion here, Bahrain's Habib Sabah (Bahrain) 4-0 in the quarterfinal, and later the consecutive masters semifinalist here, Manan Chandra (India) 4-2 in the semifinal. Asif managed to win the championship final against a very good men's player, India's Brijesh Damani, 4-3, after bouncing back from being 3-2 down. He changed his style of play when he saw that the previous strategy wasn't working."
Kapadia added that the players are now busy with the U21 and 6Reds championships, as both Hasnain and the 2022 IBSF World Championship winner Ahsan Ramzan, won their opening matches.
"I feel that this achievement by Hasnain will encourage other youngsters as well, that they too can win laurels for Pakistan in snooker. I feel this has been a great motivator and achievement for us," explained Kapadia.
He shed some light on the level of competition in Manama and his own experience as the referee as well.
"The competition is getting tougher with each passing year. For example, in the masters event that Asif won, more and more top men's players are coming to play it because they are getting older; similarly, the age group events are tougher too.