Amir Sarkhosh Secures Q Tour Middle East Double
Amir Sarkhosh continued his 100% record in the Q Tour Middle East series by coming from 3-0 down to defeat Mohamed Shehab 4-3 in the final of the second event at the Cue Sports Academy in Abu Dhabi.
The Iranian player had whitewashed Habib Humood in the event one final last week and carried on his impressive form with defeats of Abdulrahim Alkhoori, Yazan Alhaddad and Abdulrahman Alaqouri to set up a semi-final rematch with Humood.
The former World Snooker Tour professional from Bahrain proved a tougher challenge than in the previous week’s contest, sharing the first four frames, but it was Sarkhosh who held himself together to secure a 4-2 victory and his place in a second consecutive final.
On the other side of the draw Shehab, another former main tour professional, stormed into the last four without dropping a frame.
Shehab, playing on home soil, beat both Mohamed Hany Ahmed and Hossam Elrifaei to nil in the early rounds and continued his fine form with a stunning 4-0 victory over Ismail Türker which included breaks of 94, 129 and 137 – the latter being the highest of the event.
The best-of-seven frame final took place on Wednesday afternoon and Shehab raced into a commanding 3-0 lead to leave himself just one away from the title. Sarkhosh battled back, however, to take the next two frames before a break of 52 helped the Iranian to force a decider.
The seventh frame was a tense affair without a decisive match-winning break, but Sarkhosh did enough to win it and secure back-to-back Q Tour Middle East titles. He now heads into the final event of the series, which begins on Thursday 18 January, as the strong favourite to earn a place at the Q Tour Global Play-Off, where three World Snooker Tour cards will be up for grabs.
