Ahmed Saif (born 1 January 1983) is a

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

i former professional

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

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 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

and

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Asian Games,

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

and

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

Asian Indoor Games. Saif had success in the

2011 Pan Arab Games The 2011 Arab Games also known as the 12th 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 the comp ...

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 and

Mohsen Bukshaisha Muhsin (also spelled Mohsen, Mohsin, Mehsin, or Muhsen, ) is a masculine Arabic given name. The first person known to have the name "Muhsin" was Muhsin ibn Ali, the son of Ali ibn Abi Talib and Fatimah bint Muhammad. Islamic term In Arabic, it ...

. Saif also appeared as a wildcard in

2008 Bahrain Championship The 2008 Bahrain Championship was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 8 and 15 November 2008 at the Bahrain International Exhibition Centre in Manama, Bahrain. It was the fourth ranking event of the 2008/2009 season ...

, where he lost 5–1 to

Robert Milkins Robert Milkins (born 6 March 1976) is an English professional snooker player known for quick play. Milkins has been a member of snooker's main tour since regaining a tour card in 1998. Milkins reached a career high rank of 12 in 2014 and 2023, ...

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 Players Championship Grand Final, ...

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 professional snooker player from Widnes, Cheshire. He is best known for being the surprise finalist of the 2007 Welsh Open (snooker), 2007 Welsh Open. Career Early years After some succ ...

and Jamie Clarke.

Professional

Saif entered the 2013 Q School in an attempt to become Qatar's first professional snooker player. In the first event he beat fellow countryman

, before falling to Shane Castle in the last 64. However, with wins over Zack Richardson,

Duane Jones Duane Lionel Jones (April 11, 1937July 22, 1988) was an American actor. He was 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 University of New ...

Michael Georgiou Michael Georgiou (born 18 January 1988) is a British-Greek Cypriots, Cypriot former professional snooker player from Forest Hill, London, Forest Hill. He is a practice partner of Igor Figueiredo and Hammad Miah, who practises at Whetstone Snooke ...

, 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 The 2014 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2014 Dafabet World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 19 April to 5 May 2014 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 3 ...

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 a current commentator and pundit for ITV and Eurosport on snooker coverage. A mainstay of the world's top sixteen during the 1990s and 2000s, he has wo ...

. 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

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saif, Ahmed Qatari snooker players Place of birth missing (living people) 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 Arab Games silver medalists Arab Games bronze medalists