Ahmed Saif (born 1 January 1983) is a former

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

i professional

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

player. He was the first professional player from Qatar. Saif was a professional between 2013 and 2015, reaching a highest ranking of 113 in the world.

Career

Amateur

Saif as an amateur represented the Qatari national snooker team at the

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

and

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Asian Games,

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

and

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

Asian Indoor Games. Saif had success in the

2011 Pan Arab Games The 2011 Pan Arab Games also known as the 12th Pan Arab Games took place in Doha, Qatar from 6 to 23 December 2011. This was the first time that the country had hosted the multi-sport event. Khalifa International Stadium was the main venue for th ...

where he won a silver medal in the snooker singles, losing to Iraqi Firas Al-Shamini in the final, he also won a bronze in the team event alongside

Ali Al Obaidly ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...

and Mohsen Bukshaisha. Saif also appeared as a wildcard in 2008 Bahrain Championship, where he lost 5–1 to

Robert Milkins Robert Milkins (born 6 March 1976) is an English professional snooker player. Considered one of the most naturally talented and quickest players in the game, Milkins has been a mainstay on the tour since regaining his tour card in 1998. Milkins ...

in the wildcard round. He also appeared in the opening two

Players Tour Championship The Players Tour Championship was a series of snooker tournaments comprising some minor-ranking events played in Europe, and an Asian leg comprising some minor-ranking events in Asia. The series concluded with a Grand Final, where qualification ...

events in the 2010/2011 season, however he lost both of them 4–0 to

Andrew Higginson Andrew Higginson (born 13 December 1977) is an English former professional snooker player from Widnes, Cheshire. He is best known for being the surprise finalist of the 2007 Welsh Open. Career Early years After some success in amateur tourn ...

and Jamie Clarke.

Professional

Saif entered the Q School at the end of the

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

season in an attempt to become Qatar's first professional snooker player. In the first event he beat fellow countryman Mohsen Bukshaisha, before falling to

Shane Castle Shane may refer to: People * Shane (actress) (born 1969), American pornographic actress * Shane (New Zealand singer) (born 1946) * iamnotshane (born 1995), formerly known as Shane, American singer * Shane (name), a masculine given name and a sur ...

in the last 64. However, with wins over

Zack Richardson Zack or Zach may refer to: People * Zach (surname), various people * Zack (surname), various people * Zack (personal name), lists of people and fictional characters named Zack, Zach, Zac, Zak or Zakk * Záh (gens) or Zách, a ''gens'' (clan) in th ...

Duane Jones Duane L. Jones (April 11, 1937July 22, 1988) was an American actor and theatre director, best known for his lead role as Ben in the 1968 horror film ''Night of the Living Dead''. He was later director of the Maguire Theater at the State Universi ...

Michael Georgiou Michael Georgiou (born 18 January 1988) is a British-Cypriot former professional snooker player from Forest Hill. He is a practice partner of Igor Figueiredo and Hammad Miah, who practises at Whetstone Snooker Club. In 2018, Georgiou won his fi ...

, Antony Parsons and Jamie Clarke in the second event, Saif reached the semi-final stages and won a place on the main tour for the 2013–14 and 2014–15 seasons. Saif was to endure a difficult debut season as a professional, as he failed to win a single match, winning only fourteen frames in fourteen matches, six of which came in his 10–6 loss to

Scott Donaldson Scott Donaldson (born 19 March 1994) is a Scottish professional snooker player. Donaldson turned professional in 2012 after winning the 2012 EBSA European Snooker Championship and gained a two-year tour card for the 2012–13 and 2013–14 ...

in the 2014 World Snooker Championship first qualifying round. He finished the season ranked 130. Saif's first match win as a professional came in January 2015 at the minor-ranking Xuzhou Open over Chinese amateur Long Yun. Later, he achieved his first win in a full ranking event, beating Anthony Hamilton 4–0 at the 2015 Welsh Open, closing out the match with a 95 break which is the highest of his career in competitive play. However, Saif was whitewashed in the next round 4–0 by

Alan McManus Alan McManus (born 21 January 1971) is a Scottish retired professional snooker player and current commentator who works for Eurosport. A mainstay of the world's top sixteen during the 1990s and 2000s, he has won two ranking events, the 1994 Du ...

. He ended his stint on the tour ranked world number 117 and failed to come through Q School in an attempt to win his place back.

Performance and Rankings timeline

References

External links

*
Profile on ProSnookerBlog.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saif, Ahmed Qatari snooker players Place of birth unknown 1983 births Living people Cue sports players at the 2002 Asian Games Cue sports players at the 2006 Asian Games Cue sports players at the 2010 Asian Games Asian Games competitors for Qatar