Himanshu, Faisal to clash in Matunga Gym snooker final

The Matunga Gymkhana billiards hall seems to be happy hunting ground for Himanshu Jain of GAIL (India) Ltd., as he emerged winner of the 9-Red event last year. The PSPB cueist continued with his impressive showing to book his berth in the final of the Matunga Gymkhana 6-Red Open Snooker Tournament 2018, sponsored and hosted by Matunga Gymkhana, under the auspices of BSAM and played at the gymkhana’s billiards hall.

The Telangana-based Himanshu produced another determined performance and came out victorious from a gruelling tussle with Laxman Rawat of Bombay Gymkhana by rolling to a close 6-5 victory in the best-of-11 frame semi-final encounter on Sunday.

In the other semi-final played on an adjacent table, was also a close absorbing affair, before Faisal Khan of Railways managed to win a crucial deciding frame to clinch a tight 6-5 win against Pune challenger Taaha Khan.

Earlier, top-seeded Kamal Chawla of Railways made an early exit as he succumbed to a 1-5 defeat at the hands of Himanshu Jain in a best-of-9 frame quarter-final match.

Chawla started with a bang, constructing a break of 42 to quickly win the opening frame. But, thereafter, he got bogged down as Jain, made a strong reply and with steady, consistent potting pocketed the next five frames in succession to run out worthy winner, with the frame scores reading at 0-42(42 break), 42-7, 49-18, 37-17, 33-3 and 35-0 to book his place in the semi-finals.

Meanwhile, Taaha Khan of Pune and Faisal Khan of Indian Railway were both in good nick and recorded authoritative 5-0 victories in their respective quarter-final encounters and set up a meeting in the semi-finals.