Shyam Shroff Memorial - Khar Gymkhana Snooker Tournament

Khar Gymkhana - 15 Linking Road

Khar - Mumbai

Qualifying :: 26 February - 02 March 2008

Main Round :: 04 - 09 March 2008

Pankaj, Yasin for Khar Gymkhana

Report by :: Don Monteiro

National champion Pankaj Advani will lead an elite field of cueists who will feature in the Khar Gymkhana-Shyam Shroff Memorial Open Invitation Snooker Tournament at the Khar Gymkhana. Apart from Advani, the main draw will include Aditya Mehta, Manan Chandra, Sourav Kothari, Aloke Kumar, Yasin Merchant and Rupesh Shah, who finished in that order in the national championships, and junior national champion Shravan Mohta.

This elite group of eight will be joined by four wild cards Devendra Joshi, Ashok Shandilya, Sarang Shroff and Rafath Habib of Karnataka apart from eight qualifiers. The field of 20 in the main draw will include four groups of five players each with the top two players in each group qualifying for the quarter-finals.

The winner will receive Rs.60,000, while the runner-up will earn Rs. 30,000. In addition, the cash prize for the highest break is Rs.5,000.

The qualifying rounds, which began on Tuesday will conclude on March 2, while the main draw will be held from March 4 to 9. The semi-finals will be held on March 8 and the final on March 9.

Meanwhile, the versatile Arun Agrawal, who recently broke his backbone and is undergoing treatment, ignored the serious injury to kick off his campaign with a 3-0 win over Manek Jhaveri in the first round of the best-of-five frames qualifiers that got under way on an eventful Tuesday of close encounters.

In contrast, there were tight contests as Joseph Menezes, Mahesh Jagdale, who rifled in a break of 53 in the third frame, and Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana marker Mahadev Bhogle rallied from the loss of the opening frame to advance to the second round.

Results (Qualifiers):

First Round:

Sanjiv Chimnani bt Mukesh Bajaj 86-9, 56-14, 63-9

Ashish Pathak bt Vishal Parekh 60-25, 59-51, 91-41