Malabar Hill Club senior 15-red snooker
Adit Raja (Mumbai) and Sumit Ahuja (Ulhasnagar) in contrasting won their respective semi-final matches in the Senior men’s 15-red snooker event of the Malabar Hill Club State Ranking Snooker Tournament 2024, played at the MHC billiards hall on Saturday evening.
Raja rallied from losing the first frame to defeat home challenger Manav Panchal (Mumbai) by a comfortable 4-1 frame score in the best-of-7-frame last four match. Panchal playing on his home turf started positively by easily pocketing the opening frame.
But, Raja came roaring back and constructed breaks of 42 in the second and 31 in the fifth to complete a 19-60, 79-0, 60-33, 69-46, and 72-9 victory to advance to the finals.
On a side table, Ahuja continued with impressive winning form and managed to register a fighting 4-3 win against Yudhishthir Jaising (Mumbai) in the other semi-final.
Jaising started on a promising note and compiled an unfinished 39 break to win the first frame. But, Ahuja won a close second on the black and after both shared the next four frames to take the match to the decider. In the seventh frame, Ahuja grabbed his chances to stay in front before winning the frame to close out the contest 14-79, 65-63, 7-64, 72-20, 70-52, 35-76, and 58-24 deserving victory.
Results – Men’s 15-red snooker (semi-finals): Adit Raja (Mumbai) beat Manav Panchal (Mumbai) 4-1 (19-60, 79(42)-0, 60-33, 69-46, 72(31)-9);
Sumit Ahuja (Ulhasnagar) beat Yudhishthir Jaising (Mumbai) 4-3 (14-79(39*), 65-63, 7-64, 72-20, 70-52, 35-76, 58-24).