International Manan Chandra , from PSCB, has been in stupendous form as he ousted Rupesh Shah 5-1 to storm into the semifinal of the “The Yasin Merchant Snooker Challenge-2022”, hosted by Khar Gymkhana in memory of their umpteen times national champion Shyam Shroff, here today.
Earlier in the day, in a clash of two internationals PSCB’s Manan Chandra had pipped Kamal Chawla 4-3 after both shared the first six frames in a thrilling affair for a place in the quarterfinals. Another stalwart Rupesh Shah had stunned former Asian medalist and world bronze medalist Shivam Arora 4-3 in an action-packed tie. The tie between Rupesh and Shivam was full of ups and downs with Rupesh having an upper hand before Shivam twice hit back to go up 3-2. However, in the end it was Rupesh who kept up the pressure to wrap up the tie.
Asian No. 2 Ishpreet Singh, the hot favourite trailed 1-3 before he produced stunning breaks of 86 and 124 – the highest so far – in the next two frames that just floored Faisal Khan 4-2 and later Ishpreet routed Madhya Pradesh’s Anurag Giri 5-0.
Junior Rayaan Rizmi’s good run came to an end when Dhvaj Haria came from behind with the help of century break to send the junior national champion packing 5-3 on way to quarterfinals.
Results : (Quarter-finals): Ishpreet Singh bt Anurag Giri 5-0 (114[114] -11, 131 [88] – 6, 73-23, 67-34, 60-22); Laxman Rawat bt Sourav Kothari 5-3 (69-27, 17-68, 93 [B51]-3, 79-34, 51-64, 50-79, 52-45, 64-20); Manan Chandra bt Rupesh Shah 5-1(75-69, 23-85, 124 [B124-0); 68-40, 83-8, 68-6; Dhvaj Haria bt Rayaan Razmi 5-3 (37-83, 17-80, 41-68, 69-43, 119[B102]-26, 70-13, 69-2, 64-42).