Arantxa Sanchis
Mumbai, March 22: Arantxa Sanchis of Pune, the lone women contender left in the fray, and Yasin Merchant of Khar Gymkhana, both produced impressive performances and hogged all the attention as they recorded contrasting victories in their respective best-of-9 frame 5th round qualifying matches 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.
A former gold medal winner at the IBSF World 6-Red snooker and former National 6-Red snooker champion, Arantxa showed great character and courage as she rallied from a 2-4 deficit to turn the tables on her more experienced opponent Dhruv Sitawala of P.J. Hindu Gymkhana by snatching a remarkable 5-4 victory to book a berth in the main draw.
Meanwhile, former two-time Asian Yasin stamped his class with a sparking display to waltz past Anant Yelve of Goregaon Sports Club, winning by a facile 5-0 margin. Yasin quickly got into a groove and was in complete control. After taking a 2-0 lead he constructed a run of 38 in winning the third and then produced a craft break of 72 in the next, before he also won the fifth to wrap up the match at 46-25, 48-7, 38(38)-1, 76(72)-0 and 32-8. His 72 break effort is the highest in the competition at the moment.
In a match between two left-handed cueists, Arantxa started well by taking first two frames before Sitwala, a former two-time Asian Billiards champ, found his touch and went on to pocket the next four frames in succession to grab a commanding 4-2 advantage. However, a composed Artanxa not in the mood to give up without putting up a fight did exceptionally well and with some steady play managed to regain the winning formula and went ahead to clinch the last three frames to close out the match with the frame scores reading 38-17, 41-20, 2-51, 10-45, 22-36, 17-42, 45-27, 51-40 and 36-1 in her verdict.
Earlier, Arantxa defeated Avenish Shah of Cue Schooling 4-2 (0-42(36)-38-15, 20-43, 43-15, 36-18, 28-18) in a fourth round encounter.
Results – 5th round: 5th final qualifying round: Arantxa Sanchis (Pune) bt Dhruv Sitwala (Hindu Gym) 5-4 (38-17, 41-20, 2-51, 10-45, 22-36, 17-42, 45-27, 51-40, 36-1);
Yasin Merchant (Khar Gym) bt Anant Yelve (Goregaon SC) 5-0 (46-25, 48-7, 38(38)-1, 76(72)-0, 32-8).
4th round: Santosh Pawar (KG) bt Ankit Thakkar (MG) 4-3 (28-25, 28-32, 40-12, 40-20, 37-49, 4-42(22), 52-0);
Anant Yelve (GSC) bt Adil Khan (IG) 4-3 (35-15, 29-36, 36-27(22), 19-41, 16-30, 49-30, 39-21);
Dhairya Bhandari (JVPG) bt Aashit Pandya (DG) 4-3 (35-28, 22-34, 45-0, 0-41(31)-0, 1-35, 42-6, 43-7);
Aditya Agrawal (MG) bt Ajinkya Yelve (NSCI) 4-3 (4-38, 25-16, 7-43, 20-30, 45-14, 42-20, 34-26);
Viren Sharma (Pune) bt Anup Kedia (JVPG) 4-1 (43-0, 35-24, 50-25, 18-31, 44-36);
Krishna Saraf (JVPG) bt Usama Shaikh (Q-Club, Vashi) 4-1 (30-28, 34-23, 14-34, 28-19);
Mohmed Husain (W Railways) bt Kartikeye Sharma (Vashi) 4-0 (28-15, 38-0, 52-16, 39-3);
Anurag Baagri (ECC) bt Gaurav Jaisinghani (IJ-MINTCWs) 4-3 (11-33, 44-24, 4-35, 18-28, 40-5, 43-17, 61-6);
Mahesh Jagdale (ECC) bt Nikhil Ghadge (Railways) 4-2 (27-36, 32-12, 33-19, 39(23)-27, 21-50, 39-9);
Krish Gurbaxani (KG) bt Vilas Upsham (ECC) 4-3 (36-0, 20-50, 40-8, 24-38, 39-36, 15-37, 36-14);
Nikhil Ootam *CCI) bt Vimal Mariwala (Radio Club) 4-0 (47(27)-9, 48(24, 24)-1, 37(23)-13, 53-21);
Karan Mangat (Vashi) bt Sidhraj Shah (CCI) 4-2 (23-47, 34-37, 29-20, 40-2, 44-9, 34-27);
Arantxa Sanchis (Pune) bt Avenish Shah (Cue Schooling) 4-2 (0-42(36)-38-15, 20-43, 43-15, 36-18, 28-18);
Asim Kadiwala (Arabian Kings) bt Rajeev Adani (Matunga Gym) 4-2 (33-21, 41-6, 8-31, 7-45, 38-29, 54-30);
Anand Raghuvanshi (Hindu Gym) bt Kunal Kapoor (NSCI) 4-3 (31-40, 37-10, 7-36, 45-2, 54-25, 36-31).