Home challenger Manoj Kasare of Mumbai put up a solid fighting performance and managed to overcome Ashish Gore also of Mumbai by carving out a hard-fought 4-3 (52-18, 79-35, 35-61, 30-72, 69-27, 45-82, and 61-46) win in a Senior snooker in a first-round match of the Khar Gym presents CR Realty-Western India Billiards and Snooker Championships 2024, played at the Khar Gymkhana billiards room on Sunday.
In another closely contested first round encounter, Mumbai’s Neil Gudiwalla got the better of city mate Nishit Majmudar by a fighting 4-3 (53-28, 30-60, 58-63, 68-54, 53-41, 11-54, and 53-34) margin.
Meanwhile, seasoned cueist Manav Panchal made an early exit losing to Yash Babani of Mumbai 2-4 in a well-contested second round encounter. Babani started in positive fashion and won the first three frames to take a commanding 3-0 frame scores lead. Panchal fought well and managed to pocket the next two frames to close the gap. But, Babani returned to winning ways and took the sixth frame to clinch a 56-14, 69-40, 56-35, 36-67, 39-48, and 66-35 frame scores win.
Results: Senior qualifier – round 1: Manoj Kasare (MAH) bt Ashish Gore (Mah) 4-3 (52-18, 79-35, 35-61, 30-72, 69-27, 45-82, 61-46); Neil Gudiwalla (MAH) bt Nishit Majmudar (Mah) 4-3 (53-28, 30-60, 58-63, 68-54, 53-41, 11-54, 53-34); Khushal Galaiya (MAH) bt Ronak Dedhia (MAH) 4-1 (62-40, 56-46, 54-40, 40-53, 46-28); Parth Shah (GUJ) bt Jairaj Soni (Pune) 4-0 (66-8, 59-6, 61-8, 56-14);
Round-2: Pinak Anap (Pune) bt Pranay Gharat (MAH) 4-0 (64-58, 41-26, 42-8, 62-49); Vishwajeet Mohan (UP) bt Pratik Thakkar (Mah) 4-1 (61-16, 83-0, 61-54, 32-50, 80-1); Ravi Jaising (MAH) bt Nauzad Munshi (Mah) 4-0 (56-20, 60-31, 69-8, 49-25); Yash Babani (MAH) bt Manav Panchal (MAH) 4-2 (56-14, 69-40, 56-35, 36-67, 39-48, 66-35).