THOUGH the sport played on green baize is gaining popularity in the city with a lot of pool parlours functional, there are no players who play competitive sport at State or National level. Nagpur’s Zubair Sheikh, who took part in the GreatWhite presents BSAM Maharashtra State Selections 2023 Senior Snooker in Mumbai, made a mark in the tourney making it to the top sixteen on his first attempt. A win in the draw of 16 would have helped Sheikh grab a berth in the Maharashtra squad for national-level championship.

 

Sheikh, who stunned State’s sixth ranked Sanket Mutha 3-1 earlier in the meet, went down 1-4 in the pre-quarter bout against Shahyan Razmi. In the best of seven frames match, Sheikh lost the first two 51-64 and 47-54 but bounced back to take the third one 60-32 to reduced the deficit to 1-2. However, he could not maintain the momentum as the local player took two frames in row at 70-21 and 87-6 to seal the issue. The loss left Sheikh to play for Maharashtra seeding form 9th to 16th place. It was not a good day in the office for the city youngster as he lost the qualification match and finally had to be satisfied with the 16th seeding.