Matunga Gymkhana 6-Red Open Handicap Snooker Tournament.
Vaya stuns favourites to enter quarters
Underdog Vishal Vaya shocked 2013 Asian bronze medallist Laxman Rawat and Asian billiards semi-finalist Siddharth Parikh to storm into the quarter-finals, in the Matunga Gymkhana 6-Red Snooker Tournament on Wednesday.
Giant-killer Vaya kicked off a stunning day of upsets with the back-to-back wins as he rallied from 1-3 to shock Rawat 4-3 in the best-of-seven round of 32 and later beat Parikh 5-2 in the best-of-nine pre-quarter-finals that included crucial breaks of 26 in the fourth frame and 25 in the seventh frame.
Railways cueist Rawat, one of the title contenders, received an early jolt after squandering an envious advantage after winning the opening and fourth frames on the black. But Vaya surprised his accomplished opponent and ignored his reputation to snatch three frames on the trot for one of the competition’s most significant upsets.
Vaya’s effort triggered another upset as Sumit Sardulkar of Mandpeshwar Civic Federation, Borivali stunned 2014 state senior snooker champion Manav Panchal of Malabar Hill Club in another 4-3 thriller, after trailing 1-3, to enter the pre-quarter-finals.
Joining Vaya in the next round was Nalin Patel of Bombay Gymkhana who halted Rahul Sachdev with a convincing 4-0 win. Among the others to enter the pre-quarter-finals were double world champion Arantxa Sanchis of Pune, Rovin D’Souza of PJ Hindu Gymkhana, Darshan Shah of Matunga Gymkhana, Malkeet Singh of Railways and 2012 national 6-Red champion Shivam Arora.
Results: Elite:
Pre-quarter-final: Vishal Vaya bt Siddharth Parikh 46-5, 44-34, 14-66, 49-42, 16-39, 37-1, 52-32.
Rd of 32: Arantxa Sanchis bt Aditya Agrawal 15-51, 19-45, 40-34, 30-8, 44-11, 48-0; Rovin D’Souza bt Ajinkya Yelve 8-40, 32-43, 46-24, 12-36, 46-8, 50-36, 35-28; Hitesh Kotwani bt Jaiveer Dhingra 9-42, 8-49, 46-23, 43-16, 42-15, 45-2; Vishal Vaya bt Laxman Rawat 26-27, 21-46, 44-6, 32-36, 41-36, 40-0, 37-10; Darshan Shah bt Taha Khan 25-63, 47-20, 22-42, 45-11, 10-56, 48-18, 48-23; Malkeet Singh bt Arun Agrawal 16-46, 42-32, 51-19, 39-28, 52-47; Nitesh Madan bt Pawan Kohli 50-8, 14-40, 45-8, 38-35, 44-17; Shivam Arora bt Mahadev Bhogle 21-39, 41-28, 47-8, 51-8, 39-31; Siddharth Parikh bt Pratyush Somayajula 47-22, 34-27, 22-34, 34-20, 16-34, 8-32, 55-8; Sumit Sardulkar bt Manav Panchal 21-39, 28-46, 48-35, 22-44, 48-8, 38-1, 52-10; Nalin Patel bt Rahul Sachdev 51-6, 57-1, 44-42, 45-40; Surya Prakash Singh bt R. Girish 44-14, 55-4, 40-32, 28-3.