Shivam Arora and Liyakat Shaikh, both from Pune scored contrasting wins in their respective second round matches of the Senior Snooker qualifying round of the Maharashtra State Senior Snooker & Billiards Selection (leg-1) Championship 2018 and played at the Deccan Gymkhana. Both, Arora and Shaikh qualified for the main draw, which is scheduled to start from Tuesday.
Siddhesh Mulay of Chiplun defeated Samar Khandelwal of Pune 3-2 in a second round match of the Senior Snooker event of the Maharashtra State Senior Snooker & Billiards Selection (leg-1) Championship 2018.
In the best-of-five-frame encounter, Arora was on a roll and with not much resistance coming from Satara’s Ganesh Jadhav he breezed to a 3-0 victory, with the frame scores reading 72-2, 59-13 and 72-13.
Meanwhile, Shaikh showing great determination brushed aside a strong challenge from his city mate Rohan Sakalkar and snatched a tight 3-2 win in another second round contest. Shaikh made a bright start by winning the first frame before Sakalkar put up a solid fight back and went on to take the next two frames and stitched together a break of 52 in the third. But, Shaikh came roaring back and managed to pocket the last two frames to clinch a thrilling (76-40, 41-72, 7-96, 64-27 and 60-52 frames scores victory.
Chiplun cueist, Siddhesh Mulay also encountered stiff challenge from Pune’s Samar Khandelwal before he managed to scrape through winning 3-2 (77-47, 58-62, 71-24, 30-61 and 59-37) to qualify for the main draw.
Kaiwalya Chawan from Satara also advanced to next phase after easily defeating Pune’s Tushar Sawdi 3-0 (46-42, 53-19, 53-18) in another second round match.
Results – Qualifying (round-2): Shivam Arora (Pune) beat Ganesh Jadhav (Satara) 3-0 (72-2, 59-13, 72-13); Arun Kumar (Thane) beat Satish Karad (Pune) 3-1 (66-42, 10-48, 57-7, 63-25); Rajeev Sharma (Mumbai) beat Chintamani Jadhav (Pune) 3-0 (70-47, 64-23, 55-42); Kaiwalya Chawan (Satara) beat Tushar Sawdi (Pune) 3-0 (46-42, 53-19, 53-18); Liyakat Shaikh (Pune) beat Rohan Sakalkar (Pune) 3-2(76-40, 41-72, 7-96(52), 64-27, 60-52); Siddharth Tembe (Pune) beat Omar Farooqui (Aurangabad) 3-1 (62-30, 61-36, 17-64, 68-30); Siddhesh Mulay (Chiplun) beat Samar Khandelwal (Pune) 3-2 (77-47, 58-62, 71-24, 30-61, 59-37); Harmehr Mago (Mumbai) beat Srinivas Kasturi (Pune) 3-0 (72-3, 54-20, 61-16); Sparsh Pherwani (Mumbai) beat Yogesh Lohiya (Pune) 3-0 (64-40, 52-2, 50-32); Sumehr Mago (Mumbai) beat Nilesh Patankar (Pune) 3-0 (65-1, 56-38, 72-35); Raajiv Lal (Pune) beat Pankaj Vanjania (Mumbai) 3-2 (38-57, 60-24, 30-53, 65-45, 71-33).