Merchant best in snooker business

Merchant best in snooker business
S MAGESHWARAN

BANGALORE, FEBRUARY 21: The final of the 66th Senior National Snooker Championship between Maharashtra's Yasin Merchant and Gujarat's Rupesh Shah at the KSBA Hall on Monday was divided into two phases. One, where Merchant shone and the other when he went into a deep slumber allowing his rival to get to the table. Unfortunately for Shah, Merchant's in-form phase enjoyed an overwhelming majority as the Maharashtra cueist regained the KGC Mullick Trophy after nine years with a 7-2 win.

A lead of 6-0 at the end of the first session was good enough for Merchant to demoralise his opponent. Having done that, the former Asian champion rubbed salt into Shah's wounds before giving him a respite by dropping guard in the eighth and ninth frames. Shah made good use of the charity by winning those two frames and only them, for when Merchant came back into his own in the 10th, Shah was stuck to his seat.

The match starting off on an even keel, with only the 68 which helped Merchant clinch the opening frame separatingthe two. The second frame went to the wire before Merchant lifted his game a notch higher to win on a black-ball play-off.

Pankaj champion: Karnataka's Pankaj Advani won the title in the 24th Junior Nationals. Advani accounted for Kamal Chawla and defending champion Manan Chandra to top the four-man semifinal league with an all-win record.

Results
Senior Snooker (final): Yasin Merchant (Mah) bt Rupesh Shah (Guj) 78-15, 69-62, 62-0, 74-35, 84-21, 78-0, 4-70, 47-55, 96-17.
For third place: Alok kumar (Pun) bt Devendra Joshi (Mah) 13-77, 77-44, 76-02, 68-01, 76-24. 5-8 standings: Sarang Shroff (Mah), Dharmendra Lilly (Pun), Manan Chandra (Del), Rafat Habib (Rlys).
Junior billiards (semifinal league): Pankaj Advani (Kar) bt Kamal Chawla (MP) 1472-719; bt Manan Chandra (Del) 1210-984; Chandra bt Jasvinder Singh (Raj) 981-737; Jasvinder bt Chawla 760-690.