Mohammed Shehab

Mohamed Shehab

Born	(1976-12-11) 11 December 1976 (age 47) Abu Dhabi
Sport country	United Arab Emirates [1]
Professional	1996/1997, 2006/2007, 2024-present
Highest ranking	90 (2006/2007)
Medal record Men's snooker Representing   United Arab Emirates World Games 2009 Kaohsiung Individual Asian Indoor Games 2007 Macau Individual 2009 Ho Chi Minh City Individual

Mohamed Shehab (born 11 December 1976) is a professional snooker player from the United Arab Emirates.

The winner of the Snooker Singles at the 2007 Asian Indoor Games, 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 Mark Williams in the last 16.

Career

He competed as a professional on the main tour in the 1996–97 and 2006–07 seasons, finishing the latter with a ranking of 90th, the highest of his career.

Shehab regained the professional status recently in Q Tour Global Playoffs after defeating Hong Kong China’s Yu Kiu Chang 10-8 to earn a third spell on the World Snooker Tour.

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

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 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 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, Shehab finished the season ranked 90th, and was relegated once more from the tour. ^[2]

Amateur career

Shehab would later win the Singles Snooker championship at the 2007 Asian Indoor Games. He defeated India's Yasin Merchant 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 4–3 in the final. ^[3]

After playing as a wildcard entry in the 2009 Shanghai Masters, losing 3–5 to Graeme Dott, 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, before defeating Nigel Bond in the first round. He would lose his second knockout round match to Judd Trump. ^{[4] [5]}

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. ^{[6] [7]} 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 ^[8] and Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon, ^[9] and a 5–4 loss to Mark Selby. ^[10] Shehab would draw world snooker champion Mark Williams in the last 16 knockout round. ^[10] Shehab would win the match 6–3, and would play Sunny Akani in the Quarter-finals. ^[11]

In 2023 Shehab celebrated 100 medals remarkable achievement for his country UAE.

Performance and rankings timeline

Tournament	1996/ 97	2003/ 04	2004/ 05	2006/ 07	2008/ 09	2009/ 10	2010/ 11	2016/ 17	2018/ 19	2019/ 20	2023/ 24
Ranking [12] [nb 1]	[nb 2]	[nb 3]	[nb 3]	[nb 2]	[nb 3]	[nb 3]	[nb 3]	[nb 3]	[nb 3]	[nb 3]	[nb 3]
Ranking tournaments
European Masters [nb 4]	LQ	A	A	LQ	Tournament Not Held			A	A	A	A
British Open	LQ	A	A	Tournament Not Held							A
UK Championship	LQ	A	A	LQ	A	A	A	A	A	A	A
Scottish Open [nb 5]	LQ	A	Tournament Not Held					A	A	A	A
World Grand Prix	Tournament Not Held							DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ
Welsh Open	LQ	A	A	LQ	A	A	A	A	A	A	A
Players Championship [nb 6]	Tournament Not Held						DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ
World Open [nb 7]	LQ	A	A	LQ	A	A	A	A	A	A	A
Tour Championship	Tournament Not Held								DNQ	DNQ	DNQ
World Championship	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	A	A	A	A	A	A	LQ
Non-ranking tournaments
The Masters	A	A	A	LQ	A	A	A	A	A	A	A
Former ranking tournaments
Asian Classic	LQ	Tournament Not Held
Thailand Masters [nb 8]	LQ	Not Held		NR	Tournament Not Held
Northern Ireland Trophy	Tournament Not Held			LQ	A	Tournament Not Held
Shanghai Masters	Tournament Not Held				A	WR	A	A	Non-Ranking Event
China Open	Not Held		A	LQ	A	A	A	A	A	Not Held
Former non-ranking tournaments
Six-red World Championship [nb 9]	Tournament Not Held				RR	3R	2R	RR	QF	RR	NH

Performance Table Legend
LQ	lost in the qualifying draw	#R	lost in the early rounds of the tournament (WR = Wildcard round, RR = Round robin)	QF	lost in the quarter-finals
SF	lost in the semi-finals	F	lost in the final	W	won the tournament
DNQ	did not qualify for the tournament	A	did not participate in the tournament	WD	withdrew from the tournament

NH / Not Held				means an event was not held.
NR / Non-Ranking Event				means an event is/was no longer a ranking event.
R / Ranking Event				means an event is/was a ranking event.
MR / Minor-Ranking Event				means an event is/was a minor-ranking event.
PA / Pro-am Event				means an event is/was a pro-am event.

1. From the 2010/2011 season it shows the ranking at the beginning of the season
2. New players don't have a ranking
3. He was an amateur
4. The event was called the European Open (1996/1997, 2003/2004) and the Malta Cup (2004/2005, 2006/2007)
5. The event was called the International Open (1996/1997) and the Players Championship (2003/2004)
6. The event was called the Players Tour Championship Grand Final (2010/2011)
7. The event was called the Grand Prix (1996/1997, 2004/2005, 2006/2007, 2008/2009-2009/2010) and the LG Cup (2003/2004)
8. The event was called the Thailand Open (1996/1997)
9. The event was called the Six-red Snooker International (2008/2009) and the Six-red World Grand Prix (2009/2010)

Career finals

Pro-am finals: 1 (1 title)

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Winner	1.	2007	Asian Indoor Games	James Wattana	4–3

Amateur finals: 3 (1 title)

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Winner	1.	2000	United Arab Emirates Amateur Championship	Thomas Matthew	6–1
Runner-up	1.	2006	Asian Amateur Championship	Issara Kachaiwong	3–6
Runner-up	2.	2016	Asian Amateur Championship (2)	Kritsanut Lertsattayathorn	2–6

References

1. "Mohamed Shehab - Player Profile - Snooker". Eurosport UK. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
2. "WSF News - UAE Joins the World Snooker Federation - World Snooker". World Snooker. Archived from the original on December 28, 2017. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
3. "More Cue Sports Medals in 2009 Asian Indoor Games". cuesportsindia.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
4. "2009 Sangsom 6 Reds Drawsheet". Global Snooker. Archived from the original on 5 July 2011. Retrieved 9 February 2011.
5. "2009 Sangsom 6 Reds Results". Global Snooker. Archived from the original on 7 August 2011. Retrieved 9 February 2011.
6. "UAE in focus: UAE snooker player Mohammed Shehab 'still hungry for success'". The National. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
7. "UAE snooker champion Mohammed Shehab eyes an encore". The National. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
8. "Thai-Phoon Breezes Into Knockout Rounds - World Snooker". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 2018-09-06. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
9. "Selby Clinches Knockout Spot - World Snooker". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 2018-09-06. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
10. Årdalen, Hermund. "SangSom 6 Red World Championship (2018) - snooker.org". snooker.org (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on August 2, 2018. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
11. "SangSom 6 Red World Championship results" (PDF). thailandsnooker.org. Retrieved 6 September 2018.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
12. "Ranking History". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 2012-10-21. Retrieved 12 March 2018.

External links

• Cue sports portal

• Mohammed Shehab at snooker.org