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, 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
Martin Gould (born 14 September 1981) is an English professional snooker player from Pinner in the London Borough of Harrow. He has appeared in four ranking finals and won one ranking title, the 2016 German Masters.
Career
Gould began his prof ...
and
Alex Borg
Alex Borg (born 5 June 1969 in Mellieha) is a Maltese former professional snooker player. Borg currently resides in Mellieha, Malta.
Career
Borg first turned professional in 1991, and regularly appeared as a wild card in the Malta Grand Prix, wh ...
with victories over Habib Subah and seven others to progress from his group. He beat
Supoj Saenla 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
The Challenge Tour is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European Tour and, as with on the main European Tour and the European Senior Tour, some of the events are played outside Europe.
History
The ...
, which had replaced the UK Tour, during the 2003/2004 season; he lost in the semi-finals of one event to
Stefan Mazrocis
Stefan Mazrocis (born 18 April 1967) is a Dutch-English former professional snooker player. He was born of Latvian and English parentage, and spent his early life in Leicester, England.
Career
Mazrocis turned professional in 1991. In 1995, ...
, 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
Although he entered only one tournament in the following two seasons - losing 1–4 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 ...
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
Stuart Pettman (born 24 April 1975) is an English former professional snooker player and author. The Preston native has qualified for the World Championship three times, in 2003, 2004 and 2010. He beat 2005 champion Shaun Murphy in qualifying ...
,
Liu Song
Song, known as Liu Song (), Former Song (前宋) or Song of (the) Southern Dynasty (南朝宋) in historiography, was an imperial dynasty of China and the first of the four Southern dynasties during the Northern and Southern dynasties period. ...
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
Mark Joyce (born 11 August 1983) is an English professional snooker player who lives in Walsall. He began his professional career by playing Challenge Tour in 2003. Joyce enjoyed an outstanding amateur career, winning the European Under-19 Cham ...
in qualifying for the
2007 World Snooker Championship, 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
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 ...
. 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
Issara Kachaiwong (born October 4, 1983, in Chanthaburi, Thailand), is a former Thai professional snooker player.
Career
Kachaiwong first came to public attention in 2002 when he became the Thai national under-20 champion. He continued to impre ...
4–1, China's
Xiao Guodong
Xiao Guodong (, born 10 February 1989) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He turned professional in 2007 after winning the Asian Under-21 Championships.
Career 2007–2010
Xiao appeared as a wildcard in the 2007 China Open, and beat t ...
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
Graeme Dott (born 12 May 1977) is a Scottish professional snooker player and snooker coach from Larkhall. He turned professional in 1994 and first entered the top 16 in 2001. He has won two ranking titles, the 2006 World Snooker Championship a ...
, Shebab would contest the
2009 Six-red World Grand Prix, 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
Nigel Bond (born 15 November 1965) is an English former professional snooker player.
Bond competed on the main tour from 1989 to 2022, and was ranked within the world's top 16 players between 1992 and 1999, peaking at 5th for the 1996–97 s ...
in the first round. He would lose his second knockout round match to
Judd Trump
Judd Trump (born 20 August 1989) is an English professional snooker player, a former world champion and former world number one. Widely regarded as one of the sport's most talented players, he is currently sixth on the list of all-time ranki ...
.
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
Lee Walker (born 11 February 1976) is a Welsh former professional snooker player who is the reigning World Seniors Champion. He is both an official WPBSA and SightRight coach.
Career
After turning professional in 1994 at the age of 18, Walker r ...
beat him 6–3. Shebab would make an appearance in the
2018 Six-red World Championship, 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
Mark Anthony Selby (born 19 June 1983) is an English professional snooker player, who is a four-time World Snooker Champion. Ranked world number one on multiple occasions, he has won a total of 21 ranking titles, placing him eighth on the ...
.
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
Akani Songsermsawad (; born 10 September 1995), better known as Sunny Akani, is a Thai former professional snooker player.
Career Early career
Akani, a regular in amateur Thai snooker events since 2011, first came to international attention with ...
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