The Hindu : Sport / Billiards & Snooker : Yasin dethrones Manan Chandra

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Thursday, Feb 01, 2007
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Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Yasin dethrones Manan Chandra

Avinash Nair

ON CUE: Yasin Merchant came up with a fine display to beat defending champion Manan Chandra and enter the semifinals. — Photo: K. Murali Kumar

BANGALORE: Yasin Merchant of Maharashtra ended reigning champion Manan Chandra's winning spree with an authoritative 5-3 margin in the quarterfinals of the Jain Heights-sponsored 73rd senior National snooker championship here on Wednesday.

Yasin, a former Asian champion who won the National title last in 2001, could do nothing wrong on this day and with impeccable potting sailed past Manan Chandra of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB).

Earlier in the pre-quarterfinals, Yasin defeated Sidharth Anand of Delhi, while Manan made short work of Nadeem Ahmed (TN).

Finesse and fluency

Pankaj Advani also made it to the last four and did it with the finesse and fluency that has always been associated with him. Pankaj showed D. Raj Kumar (Karnataka) the door with a 5-1 scoreline.

Raj Kumar can be a very dangerous customer, as was seen in the morning when he swept aside the challenge from PSPB's Sourav Kothari 4-1. But all that fizzled out against a composed Pankaj in the last eight clash.

In another pre-quarterfinal contest, Tamil Nadu's Prem Prakash virtually had the match sewn up against former champion Alok Kumar. After trading the first six frames, Prem enjoyed a 28-point advantage in the decider, but overlooked a blue pot and instead played a safe snooker which boomeranged on him.

Alok with a `fluke' snooker, despite twice missing out on the black within five inches of the pocket, scrambled through with a workmanlike 39 break to seal the match.

Another upset

Another upset of sorts came about in the form of Kamal Chawla's fluent win over Dharminder Lilly of Punjab in the round of 16. Kamal played some flawless snooker to register a runaway win over his formidable rival.

Pankaj will run into Alok Kumar a comfortable winner over Sarang Shroff in the semifinals, while Yasin awaits the winner of the Rupesh-Kamal Chawla match.

The results:

Senior snooker (quarterfinals): Yasin Merchant (Mah) bt Manan Chandra (PSPB) 0-98(64), 83(79)-0, 72-39, 87(73)-36, 42-54, 39-73(67), 59-42, 71-15; Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt D. Raj Kumar (Kar) 72-1, 51(50)-94(44), 128(51, 71)-3, 72(60)-5, 80-12, 88(61)-40; Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Sarang Shroff (Mah) 74-2, 53-56, 88(45)-38, 80(80)-25, 65-60, 66-33.

Pre-quarterfinals: Manan Chandra bt Nadeem Ahmed (TN) 52-17, 82-1, 86-13, 37-64, 72-2; Yasin Merchant bt Siddharth Anand (Del) 63-50, 82-1, 84-17, 81-57; Kamal Chawla (Rlys) bt Dharminder Lilly (Pun) 77-49, 75-35, 47-57, 55-69, 77-9, 65-15; Rupesh Shah bt B.V. Srinivasa Murthy (Kar) 41-74, 50-42, 69-27, 23-69, 54-49, 64-50; Pankaj Advani bt Aditya Mehta (Mah) 38-105, 100-1, 6-86, 62-10, 77-53, 58-43; D. Raj Kumar bt Sourav Kothari (PSPB) 68-40, 59-46, 68-74, 61-31, 77-41; Alok Kumar bt Prem Prakash (TN) 41-72, 51-15, 22-66, 65-53, 74-25, 32-67, 79-36; Sarang Shroff bt Brijesh Damani (WB) 98-13, 66-17, 69-51, 61-44.

Round of 32: Alok Kumar bt Neeraj Kumar (Bih) 68-21, 69-55, 87-32, 39-65, 19-71, 62-42; Brijesh Damani bt Someshwar Rao (AP) 70-53, 22-67, 122-08, 69-46, 25-77, 52-60, 73-41.

Women (league): Saraswathi (Kar) bt Kamala Chandra Babu (TN) 56-49, 39-29; Neena Praveen (TN) bt Sujaan Shah (Guj) 54-4, 66-28; Soumini Srinivas (TN) w/o Bhanumathi Mendon (Kar); Neeta Kothari (WB) bt Asha Vaswani (Kar) 48-12, 28-61, 60-29; Anuja Thakur (PSPB) bt Shreya Kothari (WB) 69-3, 80-25; Aakanksha Singh (AP) w/o Shruti Arora (Chan); Indira Hegde (Kar) bt Keerat Bhandal (Del) 31-50, 58-34, 42-28; Suniti Damini (WB) bt Indira Gowda (Kar) 48-35, 45-53, 55-31; Asha (TN) w/o Shereen Banu (AP); Jyothi Shetty (Kar) bt Neha Sanghvi (Mah) 25-54, 50-36, 52-51; Shabana Banu (AP) bt Priyanka Agarwal (Ori) 67-43, 70-59; Sadana Patel (Kar) w/o Revathi Arora (Chan).

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