Matunga Gymkhana-BSAM
All India Open 6-Red Snooker Championship 2009

Mumbai - Maharashtra

Daily Report

09.08.2009

Pandya stuns Geet Sethi

Sitwala, Parikh, Ootam also crash on a day of upsets

Young Rishabh Pandya of Spring Club stunned formidable Geet Sethi 4-2 to storm into the quarter-finals, in the Matunga Gymkhana-BSAM 6-Red All India Open Snooker Championship, on Sunday. On a dramatic day of close encounters and upsets, Pandya set the ball rolling for the underdogs when he rallied to a 56-10, 10-53, 27-37, 31-20, 41-10 win over Sethi, who kicked off his campaign with a fluent 4-0 win in his opening tie.

Sethi’s brilliant start in the competition promised more treats in future rounds. But Pandya, who trailed 1-2, came up with a late charge to prematurely halt his much accomplished opponent’s run for the third major upset in the tournament after the stunning defeats of Aditya Agrawal and Devendra Joshi.

Bhopal-based Kamal Chawla who escaped to a 4-3 win against Bombay Gymkhana’s Rovin D’Souza in the round of 32, shunted out Dhruv Sitwala of PSPB 4-2 after leading 3-0 and enduring a late challenge in the pre-quarter-finals.

Also joining the casualty list was Mumbai-based Siddharth Parikh of Railways who went down to marker Mahadeo Bhogle of Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana 0-4, and Maharashtra No. 1 Nikhil Ootam of CCI who crashed to Delhi-based Sandeep Gulati of Railways 3-4 in a thriller.

Twice Asian snooker champion Yasin Merchant of Khar Gymkhana, who sailed into the quarter-finals with a 4-1 win over Ashok Shandilya of Railways, survived a scare in the previous round before prevailing over an anonymous Akshay Kumar of Nainital 36-29, 40-6, 14-18, 34-13, 13-41, 18-45, 41-8.

In another pre-quarter-final tie, Chennai-based Rafath Habib of Railways also survived a scare before rallying from a 2-3 deficit to beat a determined Sanjeev Shah of Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana 4-3 in an absorbing contest.

08.08.2009

Khubchandani shocks Devendra Joshi

Khar Gymkhana’s Deepak Khubchandani shocked favourite Devendra Joshi 4-0 in the elite round of 32, in the Matunga Gymkhana-BSAM 6-Red All India Open Snooker Championship, on Saturday. Following his surprise win over fancied Aditya Agrawal in the third round, Khubchandani became the giant-killer in the competition as he overcame Joshi 30-7, 40-19, 45-34, 55-48.

An off-colour Joshi initiated a late challenge to come back into the match. But Khubchandani, who featured in the elite draw of the Shyam Shroff Memorial tournament, managed to stay ahead in the third and fourth frames to take the match away with yet another stunning upset. Khubchandani’s effort overshadowed Railway cueist R. Girish’s thrilling 4-3 win over Pune’s Yogesh Sharma in another round of 32 encounter.

Mumbai-based Girish trailed 0-2 and 2-3 before snatching a crucial sixth frame in a tight finish and took the decider with a significant break of 32 to seal the match. Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana marker Mahadeo Bhogle fashioned a significant win when he beat fancied V. Subramaniam of Matunga Gymkhana 4-3.

As the big boys of snooker got into action, Geet Sethi and Chennai-based Rafath Habib of Railways scored impressive wins to advance to the pre-quarter-finals where there were joined by Delhi’s Sandeep Gulati, Kolkata’s Manish Jain and Nikhil Ootam of CCI.

Mahesh Jagdale of North Indian Association, who beat Matunga Gymkhana’s Arun Agrawal 4-1 in the round of 32, fired the highest break in the competition thus far with an unfinished 65 in the third frame while beating Bombay Gymkhana’s Reza Merchant in the fourth round. Jagdale eclipsed the unfinished break of 57 by Rishabh Jain of Dadar Club and a 56 by Delhi’s Lalit Dahiya.

Sixteen winners in the fourth round joined 16 elite players in the round of 32.