Vignesh Sanghvi of Pune and Rohan Kothare of Aurangabad easily won their respective second round matches in the Senior Snooker qualifying round of the Maharashtra State Senior Snooker & Billiards Selection (leg-1) Championship 2018 and played at the Poona Club.
Vignesh Sanghvi
The former Maharashtra junior number one ranked player in billiards and snooker, Sanghvi, carved out a 3-0 win against compatriot Bipan Sankpal to qualify for the main draw. Sanghvi encountered quite a bit of resistance from Sankpal, but managed to keep his cool and went on to win in three straight frames by close margins and clinch a rewarding 45-24, 58-20 and 64-28 victory.
The Aurangabad cueist Kothare played with plenty of determination to tame the challenge from Pune’s Amit Parashar and also coasted to a 3-0 (58-36, 47-24 and 76-30) win and join Sanghvi in the main round.
Abhimanyu Gandhi
Meanwhile, three Mumbai cueists, Abhimanyu Gandhi, Abhishek Bajaj and Mayank Bhavsar, all also qualified for the next phase of the tournament, which is scheduled to commence from September 25.
Gandhi had quite a fight on hand, but still managed to charge past Ninad Ghag of Pune, winning in straight frames, 3-0 (65-36, 86-42 and 52-32), while Bajaj got the better of Nakul Patil from Nashik 3-1 (63-21, 37-47, 61-15 and 75-15) in another second round encounter.
Bhavsar produced a strong impressive performance and hardly faced much of a problem as he eased past Omkar Gore from Chiplun 3-0 (62-47, 65-2 and 77-4).
Results – qualifying (round-2): Rohan Kothare (Aurangabad) beat Amit Parashar (Pune) 3-0 (58-36, 47-24, 76-30); Abhimanyu Gandhi (Mumbai) beat Ninad Ghag (Pune) 3-0 (65-36, 86-42, 52-32); Abhishek Bajaj (Mumbai) beat Nakul Patil (Nashik) 3-1 (63-21, 37-47, 61-15, 75-15); Vignesh Sanghvi (Pune) beat Bipin Sankpal (Pune) 3-0 (45-24, 58-20, 64-28); Mayank Bhavsar (Mumbai) beat Omkar Gore (Chiplun) 3-0 (62-47, 65-2, 77-4).