Al-Obaidli enters IBSF World Snooker Championship final

Qatar’s Ali al-Obaidli created history as he reached the final of the IBSF World Men’s Snooker Championship 2023 in Doha yesterday. In the title clash today, al-Obaidli will take on Cheung Ka Wai of Hong Kong at the La Maison Hotel at 12:30pm. Both the finalists won their respective semi-finals by an identical score of 5-1.
Backed by the home crowd, al-Obaidli showed nerves of steel throughout the last four contest and outclassed China’s Deng Haohui 62-61, 62-49, 63-17, 34-78, 57-48 and 71-11 in the best of nine frames.
Haohui started the match with a break of 61 points but Ali countered him with a strategic game and clinched the frame by 1 point. After that, the local cueist maintained his steady game and won back-to-back two frames to cement a 3-0 lead.
However, Haohui got a chance to exhibit some scoring shots in the fourth frame, which he won 78-34. But a determined al-Obaidli tightened his grip to win the next two frames and secured his first-ever entry into the final of the World Snooker Championship.
On the adjacent table, Cheung Ka Wai played a magnificent game where he scored breaks in all the frames he won to get past Michael Georgiou of Cyprus. The first frame Cheung won with a break of 60 points and then faced a counter break of 76 from Michael in the second frame. After that Cheung totally dominated and made breaks of 94, 61, 58 and 52 in next four frames to win the semi-final easily,
Earlier in the day, al-Obaidli had cruised into the semi-finals with a 5-2 win over Ireland’s Ross Bulman 5-2, while Haohui had caused a major upset by defeating one of the main title contenders Amir Sarkhosh of Iran 5-2.
In the quarters, al-Obaidli controlled his game from the very beginning and secured the first two frames by a decent margin to lead 2-0 (59-24, 57-22). Though Bulman took the next two frames and levelled the match, al-Obaidli responded well in the next frame to win 71-29.
In the sixth frame, al-Obaidli kept Bulman at bay and won the frame by a landslide margin of 65 points (69-04). Bulman once again tried his best in the last frame, but al-Obaidli maintained his position strong and won the frame 54-44 to confirm a medal for Qatar.
Meanwhile, Haohui knocked out Sarkhosh after a terrific display. Despite a good start by Sarkhosh, Haohui managed to clinch the opening frame. After that Haohui struck heavily in the second frame and scored the break of 141, which is now the highest of the tournament – surpassing the previous best of 140 hit by Chang Yu Kiu of Hong Kong two days back. Although Sarkhosh made a recovery by winning the third frame, Haohui hit back with a break of 72 to take a 3-1 lead.
Sarkhosh cut the deficit with a break of 79 points but Deng was not in mood to allow any leverage. He continued to tighten the strings in next two frames and won 56-42, 53-35 to secure his berth in the semis.
Meanwhile, Cheung Ka Wai outclassed South Korea’s Seyang Heo 5-1 in an almost one-sided quarters clash. The last quarter-final match was another tough one between two prominent players of the snooker fraternity in which Georgiou defeated Brendan O’Donoghue of Ireland 5-3.