Kothari tames second seed Mehta to advance into CCI Snooker final

Second seed Aditya Mehta also fell by the wayside, losing tamely to PSPB trammate Sourav Kothari 1-5 in the best-of-nine frame semi-final match of the Rs 12.25 lakh prize money CCI All India Open Snooker Championship 2018. The match was played at the CCI’s Wilson Jones Billiards Room on Saturday.

The Kolkata-based Kothari was in complete control against Mehta, who seemed out of sorts, and with substantial breaks of 48 (2nd frame), 78 (4th frame) and 45 (6th) frame coasted to a sensational 65-35, 88-40, 26-76, 78-5, 75-23 and 58-11 triumph to advance to the final and have a shot at the top prize of Rs 2 lakh.

Earlier, Kamal Chawla of Indian Railway maintained his fine winning run of form, as he sidelined Divya Sharma from Haryana, with a convincing 5-1 margin in a quarter-final match.

The lanky, bespectacled Railway cueist, who had stunned top seed Pankaj Advani 5-2 in the earlier round, continued from where he had left off on Friday.

He played confidently and with good control, as he pounced on the chances that came his way to clinch the win. After the opening two frames were shared, Chawla with notable breaks of 58 and 86 in the fourth and fifth frames respectively went on to charge towards a facile 71-31, 56-69, 75-37, 79-6, 87-26 and 83-56 victory to advance to the semi-finals.

Chawla will clash with Brijesh Damani of PSPB in the semi-final, Damani prevailed over Sundeep Gulati of Delhi 5-2 in another quarter-final tie.

Meanwhile, PSPB cueists Sourav Kothari and Manan Chandra, fought tooth and nail and were engaged in a grueling battle before the former
managed to scrape through 5-4 in a long drawn quarter-final match, that lasted close to six hours.

Aditya Mehta, also of PSPB, who survived a scare from Yasin Merchant in the pre-quarters, enjoyed an easier time as he tamed  Maharashtra's Shabaz Khan 5-1. Aditya will take on Sourav in the other semi-final.