Mixed fortunes for UAE pair

Doha The UAE camp at the 2012 Asian Snooker Championship continues to experience mixed fortunes as both Mohammad Shehab and Mohammad Al Joker followed scintillating victories with unlucky defeats.

Al Joker, who has been placed in a tough Group D in the first round, is up against it despite an impressive performance — which included a break of 76 — that helped him defeat Bahrain star Habib Subah 4-1.

He suffered a stroke of bad luck in his last match on Monday night to lose 4-2 to fourth seed Rais Senzahi of Afghanistan. Trailing Senzahi 3-2, Al Joker gained a massive lead that left his opponent needing three snookers to grab the frame — but some fluked snookers gave his rival a chance and the Afghan cleared the table to clinch a 4-2 victory.

Still in contention

Al Joker is still in contention for a place in the last 16, but he is relying on the results of other matches.

Eighth-seeded Shehab, the other UAE player in the tournament, beat Qatar's Mohsin Aziz 4-1 on Saturday, but made just one mistake on Sunday and paid a heavy price by losing his Group H match against Alan Lin of Hong Kong 4-3.

Shehab orchestrated a dream comeback after trailing 3-1 and, in the sixth frame, the top ranked UAE cueist scored a brilliant break of 70 to go even.

Shehab seemed to be on course to win the decider before he fractionally lost position on the pink and that allowed his opponent to eventually steal the frame and the match.

Shehab remains on track for a place in the next round of the championship, which brings together a total of 52 players from 23 countries.