Pune cueists Kunal Vaswani and Alexendar Rego were locked in an intriguing and absorbing contest, before the former managed to come through squeezing through by a tight 3-2 win in the best-of-five-frame first round match in the Senior Snooker qualifying round of the Maharashtra State Senior Snooker & Billiards Selection (leg-1) Championship 2018 and played at the Deccan Gymkhana.
Sumehr Mago
Vaswani settled down quickly and wrested the initiative by pocketing the first two frames by close margins. Rego, not prepared to give up easily finally found his touch and comfortable wonthe next two frames to draw level at 2-all and take the match to the wire. In the deciding fifth framem Vaswani did well to grabs the chances that came his way and grabbed the frame to snatch a hard-fought 9-46, 50-39, 35-80, 20-69 and 49-24 victory.
Talented Mumbai cueists Sumehr Mago and Sparsh Pherwani, both easily won their first round encounters. The 14-year-old Khar Gymkhana player Sumehr was cool and composed as he defeated his Mumbai opponent Shubhojit Roy 3-1 (67-12, 20-57, 57-25, 65-45). On the other hand CCI’s Sparsh proved too good and came up with an impressive efforts, constructing two identical breaks of 62 in the second and third frames as he outclassed Nitish Mane (Pune) 3-0 (64-21, 62-0, 77-1) with a degree of comfort.
Also advancing to the next round was Ganesh Jadhav of Satara who potted steadily to overcome Kumar Shinde of Pune 3-1 (65-33, 47-57, 59-24 and 68-28).
Meanwhile, Jadhav’s compatriot Jaiwalya Chawan also produced a strong performance to blank another Satara player Dikshant Namaware 3-0 (63-42, 53-16, 42-21).
Aurangabad’s Omar Farooqui was another winner as he easily disposed of Prasad Ranade of Pune, winning in three straight frames3-0 (56-33, 60-2, 53-27);
Results – qualifying (round-1): Kunal Vaswani (Pune) beat Alexendar Rego (Pune) 3-2 (49-46, 50-39, 35-80, 20-69, 49-24); Cherag Ramakrishnan (Mumbai) beat Kiwalya Jadhav (Pune) 3-0 (63-20, 70(54)-16, 80-17); Shivam Arora (Pune) beat Jaideep Mehta (Pune) 3-1 (86-27, 38-65, 84-27, 70-10); S.N. Darshan (Pune) beat Harish Gaikwad (Pune) 3-1 (65-8, 23-79, 67-13, 64-63); Ganesh Jadhav (Satara) beat Kumar Shinde (Pune) 3-1 (65-33, 47-57, 59-24, 68-28); Kaiwalya Chawan (Satara) beat Dikshant Namaware (Satara) 3-0 (63-42, 53-16, 42-21); Tushar Sawdi (Pune) beat Tanmay Raghuvanshi (Pune) 3-0 (54-34, 48-45, 52-44); Liyakat Shaikh (Pune) beat Shezad Khan ( ) 3-0 (51-43, 60-46, 46-29); Omar Farooqui (Aurangabad) beat Prasad Ranade (Pune) 3-0 (56-33, 60-2, 53-27); Sumehr Mago (Mumbai) beat Shubhojit Roy (Mumbai) 3-1 (67-12, 20-57, 57-25, 65-45); Sparsh Pherwani (Mumbai) beat Nitish Mane (Pune) 3-0 (64-21, 62(62)-0, 77(62)-1); Yogesh Lohiya (Pune) beat Sonu Mathang (Pune) 3-1 (74-49, 74-38, 44-65, 65-9); Rohan Sakalkar (Pune) beat Angad Sahney (Pune) 3-0 (64-18, 60-16, 55-27).