DOHA: Pakistan`s cueists suffered a disappointing day at the ACBS Asian Men Snooker Championship in Doha, with Mohammad Asif and Shahid Aftab crashing out in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

Asif`s tournament came to an end after a nailbiting 4-3 [(60-0, 17-101(100), 93-17, 0-75(54), 64-45, 17-103(63), 97(97)-29)] loss to Iran`s Amir Sarkosh. The match was a seesaw battle, with Asif initially losing the first frame before responding strongly with a century break.

The two cueists traded frames, with the match tied at 3-3. Sarkosh, who had earlier eliminated Pakistan`s Mohammad Sajjad, held his nerve to win the deciding frame and advance to the semi-finals.

Shahid Aftab, Pakistan`s last hope in the men`s event, also suffered a similar fate, losing 4-3 to Qatar`s Alialobaidli [60(52)-24, 68-22, 33-77(60), 21-93,9-69,72-6,62-2].

Aftab, the national champion, lost the first two frames before staging a remarkable comeback, winning three frames on the trot to take a surprise lead.

However, Alialobaidli turned the tables, convincingly winning the next two frames to advance to end Pakistan`s journey in the men`s event.

It was an underwhelming day for Pakistan in the U-21 category too. Hamza Ilyas lost a hardfought match 3-2 to Iran`s Tirdad Azadpour, while Hasnain Akhtar suffered a 3-0 defeat to India`s Dhruv Patel. However, Hasnain bounced back to beat UAE`s Saif Al Zabi 3-1.

Ahsan Ramzan, though, had a comfortable outing defeating Iran`s Ali Lalehganidezaki 3-1.

With the group matches concluded, all three Pakistani cueists Ramzan, Ilyas, and Akhtar advanced to the last-14 knockout round.-Agencies