9-Red Open Handicap Snooker Tournament 2017
Ahuja fights strongly to defeat Soparkar 3-2
01-Mar-2017
Himatbhai Doshi
Mumbai: Sumeet Ahuja (+35) showed steady nerves and put up a strong fight which helped to score a fantastic win against Abhishek Soparkar (+29) by a 3-2 scoreline in a tense first round match of the Matunga Gymkhana 9-Red Open Handicap Snooker Tournament 2017, which is sponsored and hosted by Matunga Gymkhana and played at the gymkhana’s billiards hall.
The more experienced player Soparkar started with wins in the first two frames quite comfortably to take a 2-0 lead. But, Ahuja playing with a never-say-die attitude surprised his rival by winning the next three frames to wrap up a 67-75, 64(23)-82(34), 80-60, 87-63, 78-54 victory and advance to the second round. Ahuja made a break of 23 in the second frame and Soparkar did better with a break of 34 also in the second which he won.
In the other first round match, Sanjeev Bijlani (+29) seemed well set and easily defeated Pankaj Teckchandani (+35) by a 3-0 margin. The frame scores were 104-76, 76-43, 78-68 in favour of Bijlani.
Meanwhile, Seasoned campaigner Yasin Merchant leads the field of 210 strong title-contenders in this tournament, which is conducted under the auspices of BSAM. The final, is slated to be played on March 18.
This is the first-time ever that a 9-Red event is being conducted and this format has been conceptualized by V. Subramanium, popularly know at ‘Raja’ in the cue sports fraternity and Arun Agrawal.
The tournament offers a cash prize of Rs. 40,000 for the winners and Rs. 22,000 for the Runner-Up. The two losing semi-finalits will get Rs Rs. 12,000 (each), the four losing quarter-finalist will receive Rs. 7,000 each and Rs. 3,000 each will be awarded to the eight players who lose in the pre-quarter-final round. In addition the organizer will award prizes for the highest breaks in three categories (0-10 handicap, 11-24 handicap and 25 and above handicap). A ‘Special’ prize Rs. 9,900 will be awarded to the player who makes a break of 99. If more than one player makes a break of 99 then prize amount will be equally shared.
Besides the former two-time Asian champion, Yasin Merchant, the other star attractions include experienced Siddharth Parikh, Himanshu Jain and talented Rahul Sachdev, all starting with the lowest handicap of +3. Current Junior National snooker champion Ahutosh Padhy, Delhi cueist Nitesh Madan, Mukund Bharadiya and Anand Raghuvanshi, will all start with a +7 handicap. The other notable names include Abhimanyu Gandhi, Abhinay Edke, Manav Panchal, Sahil Nayyar, Dhairya Bhandari, Aditya Agrawal, Mahesh Jagdale and Arantxa Sanchis the National women’s runner-up.
The format is a straight knockout tournament. Matches up to the round of 32 will be played over best-of-5 frames, the pre-quarter-finals, quarter-finals and semi-finals will be of best-of-7 frames and the final will be a best-of-9 frames contest.
The tournament will be played in accordance with the prevailing rules and regulations of the Billiards & Snooker Federation of India (BSFI).
Results (round one): Param Bhagia (+39) bt Sumeet Sharma (+35) 3-1 (49-90, 94-90, 77-62, 64-60); Sanjeev Bijlani (+29) bt Pankaj Teckchandani (+35) 3-0 (104-76, 76-43, 78-68); Sumeet Ahuja (+35) bt Abhishek Soparkar (+29) 3-2 (67-75, 64(23)-82(34), 80-60, 87-63, 78-54); Naman Agrawal (+35) bt Hasnain Ajani (+35) 3-1 (93-48, 87-60, 45-86, 90(22)-43); Sahil Karnani (+35) bt Sumehr Mago (+35) 3-1 (66-64, 74-78, 65-58, 75-48); Kunal Udhwani (+35) bt Anosh (+39) 3-1 (88-60, 60-70, 78-62, 81-61); Amit Thakkar (+35) bt Jeetan Chandiramani (+39) 3-0 (69-59, 73-71, 90-51); Sauvick Mallik (+25) bt Sagar Jain (+29) 3-1 (69-40, 65-45, 72(22)-60,88(22)-38); Kaustubh Pathak (+39) bt Akshay Gogri (+39) 3-0 (87-74, 78-57, 88-63); Dhawal Karia (+35) bt Garv Kalwani (+42) 3-0 (85-54, 79-67, 87-50).