Harsh Thakkar exhibited tremendous fighting spirit as he twice came from behind to overcome Parth Chavda 3-2 in a keenly contested best-of-three-frame first round match of the National Sports Club of India (NSCI) organised Rs 13 lakh prize-money ‘Baulkline’ NSCI All India Snooker Open 2023, at the NSCI billiards hall on Wednesday evening.
Chavda started brightly by narrowly pocketing the first frame and after Thakkar comfortably won the second, he again produced another solid effort to clinch the third to regain the lead (2-1). However, Thakkar gallantly fought back and with some steady play went on to win the remaining two frames to secure a hard-fought 58-65, 58-11, 41-53, 75-45 and 67-37 victory.
Meanwhile, Simranjeet Singh easily defeated Zubin Chheda coasting to a straight frames 3-0 (60-34, 65-25, and 67-13) victory to advance to the second round.
In another well-contested match, Vilas Upshyam got the better of Omkar Gore by a 3-1 margin. Upshyam was on a roll from the start and won two closely fought frames to race to a 2-0 lead. Gore showed signs of fighting back by taking the third before Upshyam did well to win the fourth to wrap up the match with the frame scores reading 50-44, 49-39, 59-66, and 63-37 in his favour.
Sunil Jain and Sumit Saldurkar also enjoyed smooth sailing as they did not drop a frame in winning their respective first round encounters. The experienced Jain was in complete control in his match against Aditya Shandilya and cruised to a 3-0 (62-23, 51-36, and 60-16) victory to progress to the next round.
Sumit Saldurkar also potted steadily and consistently in his match against Samay Wadhwana and did not face too much opposition as he marched to a 3-0 (61-38, 81-5, and 59-17) win and booked a place in the second round.
Results – Round-1: Simranjeet Singh beat Zubin Chheda 3-0 (60-34, 65-25, 67-13);
Pratyush Somaiyajula beat Sanjeev Gupta 3-0 (62-17, 67-4, 59-26);
Sunil Jain beat Aditya Shandilya 3-0 (62-23, 51-36, 60-16);
Sumit Saldurkar beat Samay Wadhwana 3-0 (61-38, 81-5, 59-17);
Sagar Desai beat Badal Gedam 3-1 (76-33, 52-57, 65-23, 77-46);
Ankit Asawa beat Sanjiv Bijlani 3-0 (48-22, 43-28, 68-32);
Harsh Thakkar beat Parth Chavda 3-2 (58-65, 58-11, 41-53, 75-45, 67-37);\
Vilas Upsham beat Omkar Gore 3-1 (50-44, 49-39, 59-66, 63-37)