Matunga Gym 6-Red snooker report
The Matunga Gymkhana billiards hall seems to be happy hunting ground for Himanshu Jain of GAIL (India) Ltd., as he had emerged winner of the 9-Red event last year. The PSPB cueist continued with his impressive showing to book his berth in the final of the Matunga Gymkhana 6-Red Open Snooker Tournament 2018, sponsored and hosted by Matunga Gymkhana, under the auspices of BSAM and played at the gymkhana’s billiards hall.
Faisal Khan
The Telangana-based Himanshu, produced another determined performance and came out victorious from a gruelling tussle with Laxman Rawat of Bombay Gymkhana by rolling to a close 6-5 victory in the best-of-11 frame semi-final encounter on Sunday.
In the other semi-final played on an adjacent table, was also a close absorbing affair, before Faisal Khan of Railways managed to win a crucial deciding frame to clinch a tight 6-5 win against Pune challenger Taaha Khan.
Himanshu Jain
Earlier, top-seeded Kamal Chawla of Railways made an early exit as he succumbed to a 1-5 defeat at the hands of Himanshu Jain in a best-of-9 frame quarter-final match.
Chawla started with a bang, constructing a break of 42 to quickly win the opening frame. But, thereafter, he got bogged down as Jain, made a strong reply and with steady, consistent potting pocketed the next five frames in succession to run out worthy winner, with the frame scores reading at 0-42(42 break), 42-7, 49-18, 37-17, 33-3 and 35-0 to book his place in the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, Taaha Khan of Pune and Faisal Khan of Indian Railway were both in good nick and recorded authoritative 5-0 victories in their respective quarter-final encounters and set up a meeting in the semi-finals.
Results – Semi-finals: Himanshu Jain (GAIL) bt Laxman Rawat (Bombay Gym) 6-5 (0-56(48), 42(42)-9, 64(60)-4, 39(33)-26, 0-68(68), 8-42(42), 6-40, 19-39, 41-16, 33-22, 39-13).
Faisal Khan (Railways) bt Taaha Khan (Pune) 6-5 (17-26, 53-8, 19-41(41), 52(31)-14, 43(27)-0, 24-34, 3-32, 37-1, 33-13, 11-39, 37-7).
Quarter-finals: Himanshu Jain (GAIL) bt Kamal Chawla (Railways) 5-1 (00-42(42), 42-7, 49-18, 37-17, 33-3, 35-0).
Laxman Rawat (BG) bt Rahul Sachdev (Cue Schooling) 5-3 (31-15, 16-45, 35-1, 11-40, 35(35)-32, 46-0, 6-67(67), 46-19).
Taaha Khan (Pune) bt Nikhil Ootam (CCI) 5-0 (50-9, 40-31, 46-1, 44-12, 40-19).
Faizal Khan (Railway) bt Anand Raghuvanshi (PJHG) 5-0 (35-10, 37(37)-0, 53(27)-3, 41(36)-3, 44(35)-12).
Pre-quarter-finals: Kamal Chawla (Railways) bt Yasin Merchant (Khar Gym) 5-3 (0-64(29), 36-22, 42-1, 0-62(54), 7-32(24), 43(35)-6, 43-18, 37-18).
Laxman Rawat (BG) bt Manav Panchal (Malabar Hill Club) 5-3 (39-8, 44-4, 40-27, 10-37, 39(32)-10, 25(22)-43(22), 0-87(67), 43-7).