Youngsters earn professional status at final 2024 Asia-Oceania Q School snooker event

Held at the BSAT Academy in Thailand, this was the final opportunity for entrants to earn promotion to the World Snooker Tour for the upcoming 2024/25 season following the success of Lim Kok Leong (Malaysia) and Sunny Akani (Thailand) at event one.

Pakistan’s Tahir recovered from 2-1 down against Lan Yuhao in the final round on Sunday, stringing together the final three frames for a 4-2 victory and qualification.

Prior to this event, Tahir hadn’t been past the last 32 of a Q School competition in his three previous attempts.

En route to glory, the 24-year-old from Lahore eliminated fellow countryman and former pro Hamza Akbar 4-2 before ousting Zhou Jinhao (China) 4-3 - from 3-2 behind.

In the penultimate round, former Asian under-21 finalist Tahir came back from 3-1 adrift to deny Iran’s Ehsan Heydari Hezhad, 4-3.

Success for India’s Gurbaxani means four players from four different nations graduated from this year’s staging.

The 21-year-old from Mumbai lost his opening match in event one, but responded in brilliant fashion by dropping only seven frames in five matches as he progressed to the last hurdle. On his way, he saw off compatriot and recent top tier exponent Himanshu Jain, 4-1.

In the final against Pakistan’s Muhammad Naseem Akhtar, Gurbaxani went 2-0 down before compiling a four-frame winning streak to emerge a 4-2 victor.

Gurbaxani had previously played in both the UK and Asia-Oceania Q School versions, albeit with very limited joy. However, he competed at several UK/Europe Q Tour events earlier this season, reaching the last eight of event one.

He has also been a resident at the Ding Junhui Snooker Academy in Sheffield.