Asjad fires big breaks of 81 and 68 before sealing a flawless win
\n KARACHI
\nPakistan\u2019s seasoned cueist Asjad Iqbal outclassed India\u2019s Pankaj Advani 4-0 in their World Cup of Snooker quarter-final at the Active Oman Sports and Entertainment Hub in Muscat, Oman, on Tuesday.
\nAsjad made a blazing start to the knockout tie, compiling a superb break of 81 to take the opening frame 100-0. Advani offered some resistance in the next frame with 37 points, but Asjad piled up 92 to move 2-0 ahead.
\nThe third frame saw Asjad registering another 50-plus break (68) and effortlessly won it 117-16 to move one within victory.
\nHe denied Advani any chance to force a comeback and won the decisive fourth frame 83-21 to round up a perfect 4-0 victory, which propelled him into the semi-finals, where he will square off against France\u2019s Nicolas Mortreux, who booked his place in the Final Four by defeating Hong Kong China\u2019s Nansen Wan 4-1.
\nFor the unversed, Asjad Iqbal defeated another Indian opponent, Hussain Khan, 3-0 in the round of 32.
\nInterestingly, after the match, both players showed sportsmanship by shaking hands and also hugged each other, which is a rare occurrence due to India\u2019s politicisation of sports, which emerged from the ACC Men\u2019s T20 Asia Cup 2025 in September.
\nThe arch rivals met thrice in the continental tournament, and Indian players noticeably avoided post-toss and post-match handshakes with their Pakistan counterparts.
\nThe controversy did not remain limited to the men\u2019s events, as a similar situation occurred at the International Cricket Council (ICC) Women\u2019s World Cup 2025, where both teams\u2019 captains, Harmanpreet Kaur and Fatima Sana, avoided shaking hands at the toss.
\nThe handshake controversy between the arch-rivals resurfaced on Sunday during the ACC Men\u2019s Asia Cup Rising Stars 2025 clash between India \u2018A\u2019 and Pakistan Shaheens, as captains Jitesh Sharma and Irfan Niazi skipped the customary handshake at the toss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Asjad fires big breaks of 81 and 68 before sealing a flawless win KARACHI Pakistan\u2019s seasoned cueist Asjad Iqbal outclassed India\u2019s Pankaj Advani 4-0 in their World Cup of Snooker quarter-final at the Active Oman Sports and Entertainment Hub in Muscat, Oman, on Tuesday. Asjad made a blazing start to the knockout tie, compiling a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515628,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-515604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n