National champion Sourav Kothari of Kolkata crashed out at the first hurdle going down to Shivam Arora 3-5 in an interesting first round match of the of the ‘NSCI Baulkline 3.0’ All India Snooker Open 2024, at the NSCI billiards hall on Sunday.
The Pune-based Arora played with tremendous resilience and exhibited superb touch as he constructed a sequence of notable breaks, including two unfinished century runs of 107 and 104 to shut the door on Kothari, the champion of the inaugural edition. Shivam Arora who rolled in a break of 54 clinched a well-deserved 62-61, 13-99(70), 0-94(66), 87(54)-32, 107(107)-13, 104(104)-28, 32-74, and 61-50 win.
Meanwhile, the top guns Pankaj Advani, Aditya Mehta and Ishpreet Singh Chadha got down to business instantly, and all constructed century breaks in winning their first round matches.
Defending champion Laxman Rawat made a positive start defeating Anant Mehta in five successive frames. Rawat settled down quickly and called the shots from the start before signing off with a 101 break to complete a 60-13, 72-14, 64-15, 66-9, and 101(101)-12 success.
The Bangalore cueist Advani, the proud owner of multiple world titles, started with a 113 point break and went on to defeat Dilip Kumar of Chennai 5-1 (117-13, 74-21, 88-35, 71-27, 10-95, 88-10). Kumar had a good run of an unfinished 50 in the fifth frame.
Former national champion Mehta enjoyed a good roll and sidelined Mohsin Achhava 5-1 in another one-sided encounter. The lanky Mumbai cueist Mehta started with a break of 75 and followed it with a break of 108 in the third and a 68 in the fifth as he cruised to a 76-11, 34-55, 112-2, 59-26, 77-21, and 57-40 win.
Mumbai’s Ishpreet, who is currently based in Sheffield, UK, playing in the professional circuit, stamped his class by recording an authoritative 5-2 win against city mate Anurag Bagri. Ishpreet exhibited exquisite touch and played with a high-degree of confidence as he boldly went for the pots and constructed five substantial breaks on his way to victory. He started with a superb clearance of 129 in the first frame and then followed it with runs of 88, 84, 84 and 89 to overcome Bagri, who did creditably well to win two frames for the professional player. Ishpreet won 129-0, 88-16, 87-1, 101-14, 35-64, 8-75, and 98-39.
Results – Round-1: Dhvaj Haria bt S. Shrikrishna 5-1 (0-109(90),62-36,69(54)-39,70-50,95(81)-45,59-56);
Varun Kumar bt Krishna Tohgaonkar 5-2 (64-10, 84-41, 52-55, 68-27, 31-62, 78-46, 56-53);
Shoaib Khan bt Vishal Gehani 5-2 (85(77)-16, 59-61(54), 68-0, 64-13, 68-32, 9-68(54), 71(70)-0);
Ranveer Duggal bt Siddharth Parikh 5-0 (57-4, 62-1, 50-36, 55-29, 67-27);
Pankaj Advani bt Dilip Kumar 5-1 (117(113)-13, 74-21, 88-35, 71-27, 10-95(50*), 88-10);
Ishpreet Singh Chadha bt Anurag Bagri 5-2 (129(129*)-0, 88(88)-16, 87(84)-1, 101(84)-14, 35-64, 8-75(55), 98(98*)-39);
Aditya Mehta bt Mohsin Achhava 5-1 (76(75)-11, 34-55, 112(108)-2, 59-26, 77(68)-21, 57-40);
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