Veteran Merchant starts well

Two-time Asian champion Yasin Merchant used all his experience to go past Balaji Reddy of Tamil Nadu 4-2 in the Group B opening league match at the RKG-Khar Gymkhana Snooker Masters 2013, here on Sunday.

Merchant’s win included significant breaks in the second, third and sixth frames as he had dropped the first and fourth frames in the best-of-seven round robin contest.

Meanwhile, Sourav Kothari of ONGC made a clean sweep, as he got past Shoaib Khan 4-0 in Group C contest.

However, the experienced Dharminder Lily of Punjab and Siddharth Parekh of Railways had setbacks.

Lily frittered away a 2-1 advantage that allowed Aayush Kumar to make a comeback and snatch the Group A tie in the decider. Parekh lost to Shivam Arora 1-4 in Group C.
Results: Group A: Laxman Rawat (Mum) bt Harish Pahuja (Khar Gym) 61-11, 57-53, 52-23, 77(56)-10; Aayush Kumar (Pun) bt Dharminder Lily (Pun) 64(55)-65, 61-56, 19-57, 76(59)-44(35), 77-37, 29-59, 71-32; Kamal Chawla (MP) bt Harish Pahuja 70(54), 98(45, 40)-9, 61-16, 76(68)-7.

Group B: Neeraj Kumar (SER) bt Himanshu Jain (Hyd) 66-64, 80-38, 73-20, 40-84, 19-50, 56-45; Yasin Merchant (Khar Gym) bt Balaji Reddy (TN) 41-47, 77(45)-20, 80(56)-9, 55-70, 78-21, 64(42)-5.

Group C: Shivam Arora (Mum) bt Siddharth Parekh (Rlys) 61-32, 110(62, 48)-1, 76-48, 35-60, 58-53; Sourav Kothari (ONGC) bt Vijay Nichani (TN) 64-22, 74-6, 89-21, 52-11. Group D: Sandeep Gulati (Del) bt Faisal Khan (Rlys) 67-53, 84-15, 74-34, 12-69(69), 123(46)-48; Shahbaz Khan (BPCL) bt Shoaib Khan 59(43)-25, 50-51, 65-5, 79-0, 72-5; Sandeep Gulati bt Mohd Joker (UAE) 25-66, 33-75(74), 48-32, 74(66)-10, 65-9, 64-18.