Kothari, Chandra compile century breaks

Two century breaks brightened the opening day of the Rs 3.10 lakh Nahar-MIG All India Invitation Snooker Championship here today with Sourav Kothari and Manan Chandra compiling sequence of 103 and 102 in their ties.

Mumbai: Two century breaks brightened the opening day of the Rs 3.10 lakh Nahar-MIG All India Invitation

Snooker Championship here today with Sourav Kothari and Manan Chandra compiling sequence of 103 and 102 in their respective ties. National runner up Kothari of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board defeated R Girish of Railways 4-2 while Chandra (PSPB) got past Rishabh Pandya of Maharashtra 4-3 in a closely contested tie. Sandeep Gulati of Delhi created a flutter by defeating Thailand-bound former two-time Asian champion Yasin Merchant of Maharashtra 4-2 in another match. Gulati ran up breaks of 83 and 89 as compared to the 88 and 92 recorded by Merchant who is scheduled to take part in the Asian championship soon after the conclusion of this tournament. In other matches, junior national champion Shahbaaz Adil Khan of PSPB beat Gaurav Prabhu 4-0, Kamal Chawla (Railways) outstroked Lucky Vatnani (AP) 4-2 and former national champion Alok Kumar (PSPB) got the better of I H Manudev of Karnataka 4-2. Results: Sourav Kothari bt R Girish 4-2 (15-68, 73-59, 75 (48)-5, 65-37, 15-74, 103-00); Shahbaaz Adil Khan bt Gaurav Prabhu 4-0 (63-43, 53-27, 56-35, 63-17); Kamal Chawla bt Lucky Vatnani 4-2 (6-27, 81-23, 21-65, 67-57, 8-69, 54-28); Manan Chandra bt Rishabh Pandya 4-3 (32-95, 29-78, 91-1, 63-49, 77-22, 17-67, 102-0). PTI