Merchant rallies to enter final
Two-time Asian champion Yasin Merchant staged a great escape in the semifinal of the Matunga Gymkhana-BSAM-Pidilite 6-Red All India Open Snooker Championship today to set up a title clash with Kamal Chawla.
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Mumbai: Two-time Asian champion Yasin
Merchant staged a great escape in the semifinal of the Matunga
Gymkhana-BSAM-Pidilite 6-Red All India Open Snooker
Championship today to set up a title clash with Kamal Chawla.
The bespectacled cue ace recovered from 1-2 and 3-4
deficits to overcome Delhi-based Sandeep Gulati of Railways
5-4 in a bitterly fought semifinal. Merchant won 43-9, 4-28,
2-37, 45-6, 38-13, 4-57, 7-33, 51-0, 34-28.
In the other semifinal, Chawla, having warmed up with
fine victories over Rovin D`Souza, Dhruv Sitwala and Rafath
Habib in earlier rounds, sailed past R Girish 5-1.
In the all-Railways semifinal tie, Bhopal-based Chawla
prevailed 20-34, 40-9, 38-9, 44-26, 40-10, 48-41 over his
Mumbai-based rival.
Merchant lived dangerously after getting off to a good
start against Gulati. Down 3-4, he fired a break of 45 to
clinch the eighth and force the decider.
He was trailing by 20 points and staring at defeat in the
ninth and final frame when Gulati`s luck ran out. Merchant
pounced on the opportunity and took the frame and match.
Quarterfinal Results: Yasin Merchant bt Manish Jain
(Kolkata) 4-1; R Girish (Rlys) bt Mahadeo Bhogle 5-2; Sandeep
Gulati (Rlys) bt Rishabh Pandya 5-3; Kamal Chawla (Rlys) bt
Rafath Habib (Rlys) 5-3.
Bureau Report
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