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National Billiards & Snooker Championship
The Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy Indoor Stadium
Yousuf Guda - Hyderabad
:: Report - 20.12.2007 ::
by CSI Correspondent
Isthmit Singh Malik
Hyderabad: 20.12.2007 - Struggling till yesterday, former Asian Champion, Yasin Merchant finally found his rythm to chalk up the first century of the 2007 National snooker championship being played at the Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar Redy Indoor stadium, Yousufguda here on Thursday when he compiled a break of 111 missing on a sitter of a pink ball to what should have been a 124 break which had the appreciative audience spell bound.
Yasin in the process beat Punjab's Dhruv Verma by 113-0, 60-30 and 55-48 points to march majestically into the knock-out 32 round of the seniors snooker event.
Anuj Uppal of Delhi justified the faith reposed in him by his sponsors, AEGIS BPO -- ESSAR Group as he drubbed Rajasthan,s Rahul Bhargava in straight frames by 65-18, 69-11 and 72-27 points to notch up his second win in three matches making it to the last 32 stage.
Girish of TamilNadu living upto the promise shown in the last nationals in Bangalore gave a splendid display of neat potting and positioning for the colours following up on each red to first outplay Subrat Dass of Orissa by 62-11, 66-29 and 60-52 points and then beat I.V. Raju of Andhra in four frames by 53-11, 35-57, 67-21 and 85-0 points to enter the last 32 round.
Young Kamal Chawla gave it all to get the better of Rafath Habib in an all Railways affair in a five frames thriller ralling back in a determined fashion after being two frames down to win by 39-69, 07-71, 47-32, 80-66 and 78-39 points a victory that must have satisfied Kamal eventually.
Manan Chadra of PSPB was in his usual flowing form as he thrashed Kamal Rohmethra of Jammu in straight frames by 97-09, 73-14 and 75-11 points while Ashok Shandilya of Railways who qualified for the main event from the qualifying rounds put it across Andhra's S.Shankar Rao in straight frames by 58-03, 64-54 and 48-05 points to make the grade alongwith Manan.
In a key match of their group, using al his guile and wiles that go with the game of snooker, Saurav Kothari of PSPB overcame the strong chalenge of Sajan Bopana of Karnatka beating him in a patient but methodical game by 61-41, 55-40, 25-70 and 78-01 points to also make the last 32 grade. He was joined by his teammate from PSPB, the former World snooker champion, Pankaj Advani who defeated Ashish Dhanda of Punjab in straight frames. So did Rupesh shah of the Railways beating Manish Jain easily in straight frames.
Sarang Shroff of Maharashtra recorded comfortable victories over I. V. Rajev and Subrat Dass beating Rajev in five frames while accounting for Das in straight frames to make the last 32 grade. Geet Sethi also had no difficulty in his match against Amit Saboo 3 frames to NIL to make the grade. In the process he showed his class when pocketing a yellow kept near the pocket no.6 with the cue ball snookered when he struck a superb one cushion shot to pot the ball.