Dubai: Mohammad Mustafa Shehab will use next week's 2009 Sangsom 6-Red World Grand Prix to warm up for the World Games of Cue Sports, which will be held in Taiwan later this month.
Shehab qualified for the Taiwan tournament and will be part of a group of 16 cueists lining up for the event, which runs between July 22 and 26 in Kaohsiong.
First, though, he must wade through a 64-man field, including compatriot Mohammad Al Joker, at the Sangsom 6-Red, which will be hosted at Bangkok's Montien Riverside Hotel from July 7-12.
The Bangkok tournament has roped in up to 20 players from the World Snooker Main Tour, including five former world champions, John Higgins (1998, 2007, 2009), Shaun Murphy (2005), Mark Williams (2000, 2003), Peter Ebdon (2002) and Ken Doherty (1997).
Players from zones as diverse as Asia, Africa, Europe and Oceania have also confirmed and Shehab and Al Joker will have to be at their best to make the knockout stage of the invitation-only competition.
"Well with some of the world's top players are lining up, it's definitely going to be tough. Players like Williams, Murphy, Ebdon and Higgins have won World Championships before, and these guys are the star cast in Bangkok. The current world No 1 will also be playing in the event, so you've got to be at your best," said UAE No1 Shehab on his way to practice at the Dubai Police Officer's Club.
The pair leave for the Thai capital on Sunday and both are scheduled to play on the opening day. While Al Joker starts his campaign against local boy Phaithoon Phonbun, Shehab's meets England's Joe Perry in the first round.
Despite his confidence, Shehab knows anything can happen in 6-Red, widely considered snooker's fast and furious version, and a format that is to snooker what Twenty20 means to cricket. The unpredictable nature of results means a kind of equality prevails among the players, with even the unfancied highly capable of upsetting the favourites.
Shehab is banking on that truth. "It's anybody's game really. You play half-way and you have a good chance of winning [and rankings] don't really matter. We've been practising hard and hope to get it right," said Shehab, who is one of the many non-professional players at the event and who was part of the UAE team which successfully defended its Arab Snooker Championship title in Egypt last month.
"I finish work and then head to the club for practice, that's the way it has been, but it's not too bad. It's going to be a tough event, but I'm really hoping to gain practice and be fully-prepared for the World Games which start two weeks later."
