Salah Al Rimawi had to be content with the silver medal as he fell short in the final of the GCC Billiards Championship 9-ball final at the E-Zone Club in Dubai today.
The Emirati was two pots away from taking gold before we went down 11-10 to Bashar Hussain of Qatar.
It had looked good for Al Rimawi as he led 3-0 and 5-1 in the early stages of the best-of-21 clash.
But an undaunted Hussain rallied and won seven frames on the trot to go 8-5 ahead.
It was Al Rimawi's turn to retaliate as he won five of the next six to move within a frame of victory.
The match went to a decisive frame, but Al Rimawi's left the No 8 ball in the jaws of the pocket to allow Hussain to claim the gold.
Al Rimawi will try to bounce back in the 9-ball team competitions with his UAE teammates, which continues tomorrow after starting tonight.
Meanwhile, in a battle of the UAE's top two snooker players, Mohamed Shehab and Mohammed Al Joaker, the former emerged a 4-1 winner in the round-robin last-16 stage of the National Day Snooker Championship and became the first man to qualify for the quarter-finals.
Also today, Ahmed Shehab defeated Marwan Ibrahim 4-0 and Mohammed Hussain registered a 4-1 victory over Abdulrahman Saif.
The last 16 round-robin stages continue until tomorrow night, with the final taking place on Monday.
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