Matunga Gymkhana 6-Red Open Handicap Snooker Tournament.
Sumit shocks Shivam
Sumit Sardulkar of Mandpeshwar Civic Federation, Borivali shocked 2012 national champion Shivam Arora to enter the quarter-finals, in the Matunga Gymkhana 6-Red Snooker Tournament on Thursday.
Underdog Sardulkar rallied from a 2-4 deficit to prevail over favourite Arora in a 5-4 thriller, in the best-of-nine frames pre-quarter-finals. Arora squandered the advantage in an effort that included a break of 68 in the fifth frame, and his fortunes changed in the seventh frame when he missed the green and lost his way.
Arora’s blemish also coincided with Sardulkar’s impressive potting when the chips were down and the latter never looked back, winning the last three frames in a row.
In another close encounter, Hasan Badami of Islam Gymkhana escaped to a 5-3 win over Malkeet Singh of Railways after leading 4-0 and enduring a late challenge. Among the others to progress to the quarter-finals were 2012 national women’s champion Arantxa Sanchis of Pune, national and state junior snooker champion Ishpreet Singh Chadha of Khar Gymkhana and IBSF World Billiards quarter-finalist Dhvaj Haria of Gujarat.
Results: Elite: Pre-quarter-finals: Sumit Sardulkar bt Shivam Arora 37-27, 47-32, 23-50, 16-33, 16-68, 24-42, 47-19, 45-16, 46-8; Arantxa Sanchis bt Surya Prakash Singh 61-50, 67-41, 61-20, 39-43, 61-31, 60-36; Nitesh Madan bt Darshan Shah 68-8, 50-24, 50-16, 45-9, 48-36; Hasan Badami bt Malkeet Singh 36-9, 29-7, 41-29, 40-23, 0-40, 22-38, 23-33, 33-23; Hitesh Kotwani bt Nalin Patel 48-17, 44-42, 48-15, 22-48, 42-38, 53-12; Ishpreet Chadha bt Rovin D’Souza 41-9, 42-0, 45-4, 29-22, 50-8; Dhvaj Haria bt Abhimanyu Gandhi 34-27, 43-9, 47-1, 40-17, 0-43, 21-34, 36-9.