Mumbai: Karnataka’s M S Arun produced a sterling performance and hit the high notes as he cracked a substantial break of 95 points to breeze past Swapnil Patil of Aurangabad 3-0, in a first round match of the Rs 12.9 lakhs prize-money CCI All India Open Snooker Championship, organised by the Cricket Club of India at the club’s Sir Wilson Jones Billiards Room, on here on Saturday. Arun’s brilliant effort is now the highest in the tournament which is better than the 83 points break compiled by Abhishek Bajaj.
The Bangalore cueist Arun quickly adjusted to the table and was in full flow as he hit the balls nicely and potted quite consistently to tame the Aurangabad player. Arun after taking the first frame, fell behind in the second, but he showed his class by constructing the superb 95 points effort to pocket the frame. He maintained the winning momentum and went on to win the third and wrap up the match coasting to a 67-16, 95-30 and 76-23 victory.
Results: Second round: Nitesh Madan (Bombay Gymkhana) bt Harmehr Mago (Khar Gym) 3-0 (76(49)-17, 78(78)-7, 51-11); Avinash Kumar (Delhi) bt Viren Sharma (Pune) 3-1 (75-37, 54-68, 67-41, 65-7); Arun Kumar (Thane) bt Dhaval Gadhvi (Pune) 3-1 (69(42)-29, 57-49, 14-59, 58-47); Hanish Sharma (Delhi) bt Sagar Desai (NSCI) 3-1 (73-46, 58-27, 53-56, 67-35); Poras Shah (Matunga Gym) bt Selvel Samuel (Otters Club) 3-1 (74-50, 47-70, 60-36, 62-23); Manoj Nandwani (Ulhasnagar) bt Vijay Nichani (Pune) 3-1 (84-39, 43-73, 44-33, 61-18); Rd-3: Nabil Lakadawala (Otters Club) bt Ejaz Merchant (Bandra) 3-1 (41-55, 75-30, 62-37, 76-31); Dhruv Sitwala
(Mumbai) bt Ameya Sankhala (Mumbai) 3-1 (47-56, 66-34, 64-17, 75-12); Taaha Khan (Pune) bt Rushabh Gohil (ECC) 3-1 (60-22, 56-66,
76-40, 64-48).