Amateur Saif as an amateur represented the Qatari national snooker team at the
2002,
2006 and
2010 Asian Games,
2009 and
2013 Asian Indoor Games. Saif had success in the
2011 Pan Arab Games 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. Saif also appeared as a wildcard in
2008 Bahrain Championship, where he lost 5–1 to
Robert Milkins in the wildcard round. He also appeared in the opening two
Players Tour Championship events in the
2010/2011 season, however he lost both of them 4–0 to
Andrew Higginson 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
Mohsen Bukshaisha, before falling to
Shane Castle in the last 64. However, with wins over
Zack Richardson,
Duane Jones,
Michael Georgiou,
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 in the
2014 World Snooker Championship 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. ==Performance and Rankings timeline==