Dubai: Abdullah Attar, Eisa Al Saeed and Salim Ali Salim were among the winners as the 2009 National Snooker Trial got off to an exciting start at Dubai Snooker Club on Sunday night.
The tournament is being played on a round-robin basis and while Salim was stretched by Yahya Al Suwaidi in Group A, Attar and Al Saeed had relatively comfortable wins over Humaid Al Dharmki and Abdul Aziz Rais in Group B respectively.
A scheduling error prevented the fourth tie of the night, between Mohammad Al Balushi and Abdul Rahman Saif, from being staged.
Newcomer Al Suwaidi started well and looked certain to stage an upset after he won the first two frames 56-15, 52-51, but Salim stepped up his game several notches and made it two frames apiece by winning the third and fourth 79-50, 60-20. Salim was forced to peg Al Suwaidi back a second time when he won the sixth frame 66-34, negating Al Suwaidi's slender one-frame lead achieved as a result of winning the fifth frame 60-56. The deciding seventh frame fourght hard and it was won 70-42 by Salim over the pink ball.
In Group B, Attar shrugged off a challenge from the feisty and unrelenting Al Dharmki to win 62-59, 31-52, 63-42, 73-58, 62-61, while Al Saeed, often spoken off as the third best player in the UAE, came back twice to beat Rais 49-60, 49-18, 18-81, 80-55, 57-32.
Three players each from two seven-player groups and leading Emirati pair Mohammad Shehab and Mohammad Al Joker will compete in a ranking tournament to decide players represent the UAE in international competitions.
