Hard-earned win for Merchant

Mumbai: Two-time Asian champion Yasin Merchant used all his experience to go past Balaji Reddy of Tamil Nadu 4-2 in the Group B opening league match at the RKG-Khar Gymkhana Snooker Masters 2013, here on Sunday.

Merchant`s win included significant breaks in the second, third and sixth frames as he had dropped the first and fourth frames in the best-of-seven round robin contest. Meanwhile, Sourav Kothari of ONGC made a clean sweep, as he got past Shoaib Khan 4-0 in Group C contest. However, the experienced Dharminder Lily of Punjab and Siddharth Parekh of Railways had setbacks. Lily frittered away a 2-1 advantage that allowed Aayush Kumar to make a comeback and snatch the Group A tie in the decider. Parekh lost to Shivam Arora 1-4 in Group C. Results: Group A: Laxman Rawat (Mumbai) bt Harish Pahuja (Khar Gym) 61-11, 57-53, 52-23, 77(56)-10; Aayush Kumar (Pun) bt Dharminder Lily (Pun) 64(55)-65, 61-56, 19-57, 76(59)-44(35), 77-37, 29-59, 71-32; Kamal Chawla (MP) bt Harish Pahuja 70(54), 98(45, 40)-9, 61-16, 76(68)-7. Group B: Neeraj Kumar (S.E. Rly) bt Himanshu Jain (Hyd) 66-64, 80-38, 73-20, 40-84, 19-50, 56-45; Yasin Merchant (Khar Gym) bt Balaji Reddy (TN) 41-47, 77(45)-20, 80(56)-9, 55-70, 78-21, 64(42)-5. Group C: Shivam Arora (Mumbai) bt Siddharth Parekh (Rlys) 61-32, 110(62, 48)-1, 76-48, 35-60, 58-53; Sourav Kothari (ONGC) bt Vijay Nichani (TN) 64-22, 74-6, 89-21, 52-11. Group D: Sandeep Gulati (Delhi) bt Faisal Khan (Rlys) 67-53, 84-15, 74-34, 12-69(69), 123(46)-48; Shahbaz Khan (BPCL) bt Shoaib Khan 59(43)-25, 50-51, 65-5, 79-0, 72-5; Sandeep Gulati bt Mohd. Joker (UAE) 25-66, 33-75(74), 48-32, 74(66)-10, 65-9, 64-18. PTI