Qatar’s Muzammil wins on opening day at World 9-Ball Championship

Doha: Qatar’s Muzammil Hussain registered a 9-7 win over South Korea’s Junho Lee in the first session of the World 9-Ball Championship at Al Arabi Sports Club on Saturday.

After having made through three gruelling qualifying rounds, Hussain rallied back from a 1-3 deficit against Lee.

The 41-year-old then swept four straight frames for a 6-4 lead, before going 8-5 up.

“I’m happy with my performance particularly after qualifying from the preliminaries,” said Hussain.

Meanwhile, Austria’s Albin Ouschan opened his title defence with a victory, but former champions Mika Immonen, Thorsten Hohmann and Alex Pagulayan suffered defeats.

Hussain next faces the Philippine world No.9 Jeffrey Du Luna, who made short work of Algeria’s Mohamed El Raousti with a 9-1 win.