Mohammed Shehab (born 1976) is a former 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 from the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

. The winner of the Snooker Singles at the

2007 Asian Indoor Games The 2007 Asian Indoor Games, officially known as the 2nd Asian Indoor Games and also known as Macau 2007 were held in Macau, China from 26 October 2007 to 3 November 2007. Most events of the games took place at the Macao East Asian Games Dome. The ...

, Shehab has enjoyed good form in the six-red variant format, most notably at the

2018 Six-red World Championship The 2018 SangSom Six-red World Championship was a six-red snooker invitational tournament held between 3 and 8 September 2018 at the Bangkok Convention Center in Bangkok, Thailand. Mark Williams was the defending champion, but he lost in the las ...

, where he reached the quarter-finals, defeating reigning

World Champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Mark Williams in the last 16. He competed as a professional on the main tour in the 1996–97 and 2006–07 seasons, finishing the latter with a

ranking A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of o ...

of 90th, the highest of his career.

Career

Having gained experience of competitive snooker at the 1995 World Amateur Championship, Shehab turned professional in 1996, for the 1996–97 season.

Main Tour

In his first season on the main tour, he entered nine tournaments, but his best performances came in the 1997 International Open and the European Open, where he reached the third qualifying round. Shehab had recorded his first professional win in the former, a 5–3 defeat of Englishman Rajan Sharma, but added only five more all season. Shebab would participate in the qualifying for both the

1996 UK Championship The 1996 UK Championship was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place at the Guild Hall in Preston, England. The event started on 15 November 1996 and the televised stages were shown on BBC between 23 November and 1&n ...

and the 1997 World Championship. His season's campaign culminated in a 1–5 loss to Iain Trimble in his second match. He finished the season ranked 397th and, with the addition of the secondary UK Tour, was immediately relegated from the main tour. Shehab did not play again competitively for five years, until he entered the 2002 World Amateur Championship. There, he compensated for losses to Martin Gould and Alex Borg with victories over Habib Subah and seven others to progress from his group. He beat

Supoj Saenla Supoj Saenla (born August 15, 1980) is a former Thai professional snooker player who lives in Chiang Mai. Career Saenla joined the professional tour for the first time in 2003 by winning the 2001 Asian U-21 Championship. He was relegated after ...

and Martin McCrudden to reach the quarter-finals, but lost 5–6 there to

Steve Mifsud Steve Mifsud (born 25 August 1972 in Australia) is a Maltese Australian professional snooker player. Career He was a winner of the IBSF World Amateur Championship in Cairo, Egypt in 2002, beating Tim English 11–6 in the final which enable ...

. This led Shehab to enter several events on the Challenge Tour, which had replaced the UK Tour, during the 2003/2004 season; he lost in the semi-finals of one event to Stefan Mazrocis, but progressed no further after this. In Event Two, he defeated seventeen-year-old

Mark Allen Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Finn ...

4–3, but lost to Steve James in his next match. Shehab would also attempt to qualify for the world championship this season, but lose in the second round of qualifying to

Lee Farebrother Lee may refer to: Name Given name * Lee (given name), a given name in English Surname * Chinese surnames romanized as Li or Lee: ** Li (surname 李) or Lee (Hanzi ), a common Chinese surname ** Li (surname 利) or Lee (Hanzi ), a Chinese s ...

Although he entered only one tournament in the following two seasons - losing 1–4 to Andrew Higginson in Event 1 of the 2004 Challenge Tour - Shehab won back his place on the main tour in 2006. His second season as a professional brought no more success than his first, Shehab winning only four matches and earning only £500. He defeated Stuart Pettman, Liu Song and Borg in the 2006 Grand Prix, and Liu again in the Malta Cup, but lost his final four matches. Following a 6–10 loss to Mark Joyce in qualifying for the

2007 World Snooker Championship The 2007 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 2007 888.com World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It ...

, Shehab finished the season ranked 90th, and was relegated once more from the tour.

Amateur career

Shehab would later win the Singles Snooker championship at the

. He defeated India's

Yasin Merchant Yasin Merchant, born 17 December 1966 is India's second professional snooker player. The late Omprakesh Agrawal was the first. Merchant won the National Snooker championships on 3 occasions, in 2001, 2000 and 1991He was honoured by ...

4–2, Hong Kong's Chan Wai Ki 4–1, Thailand's Issara Kachaiwong 4–1, China's Xiao Guodong 4–3 before beating Thailand's

James Wattana James Wattana (; born January 17, 1970, as วัฒนา ภู่โอบอ้อม ''Wattana Pu-Ob-Orm'', then renamed รัชพล ภู่โอบอ้อม ''Ratchapol Pu-Ob-Orm'' in 2003) is a Thai former professional snooker pl ...

4–3 in the final. After playing as a wildcard entry in the

2009 Shanghai Masters The 2009 Roewe Shanghai Masters was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 7–13 September 2009 at the Shanghai Grand Stage in Shanghai, China. Ronnie O'Sullivan won in the final 10–5 against Liang Wenbo. Prize f ...

, losing 3–5 to Graeme Dott, Shebab would contest the

2009 Six-red World Grand Prix The 2009 Six-red World Championship, Six-red World Grand Prix (often styled the 2009 Sang Som, SangSom 6-red World Grand Prix for sponsorship and marketing purposes) was a six-red snooker tournament held between 7 and 12 July 2009 at the Montien ...

, where he would come second in his group, defeating Joe Perry, and eventual winner

Jimmy White James Warren White (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player who has won three seniors World titles. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his fluid, attacking style of play, White is the 1980 World Amateur Champion, 2009 ...

, before defeating Nigel Bond in the first round. He would lose his second knockout round match to Judd Trump. After 2009, Shehab continued to play at amateur level, entering the World Amateur Championship each year. His best performance came during the 2013 edition, when he reached the quarter-finals, where Lee Walker beat him 6–3. Shebab would make an appearance in the

, where he would qualify from his group, thanks to wins over David Gilbert and

Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon ( ''Ṭhnwạtʹhn̒ T̄hirphngṣ̄̒phịbūly̒''; born December 14, 1993) is a Thai former professional snooker player. He turned professional in 2010 as the Asian nomination following his run to the semi-finals of ...

, and a 5–4 loss to Mark Selby. Shehab would draw world snooker champion Mark Williams in the last 16 knockout round. Shebab would win the match 6–3, and would play Sunny Akani in the Quarter-finals.

Performance and rankings timeline

Career finals

Pro-am finals: 1 (1 title)

Amateur finals: 3 (1 title)

References

External links

Mohammed Shahab on Snooker Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shehab, Mohammed Living people Cue sports players at the 1998 Asian Games Cue sports players at the 2002 Asian Games Cue sports players at the 2006 Asian Games Cue sports players at the 2010 Asian Games Emirati snooker players 1976 births World Games bronze medalists Competitors at the 2009 World Games Asian Games competitors for the United Arab Emirates