Mistry pips Jhunjhunwala

BANGALORE, June 14: Seizing the initiative from the start, second seed Siddarth Anand of Delhi stormed into the last stage before the semi-...

BANGALORE, June 14: Seizing the initiative from the start, second seed Siddarth Anand of Delhi stormed into the last stage before the semi-final league in the junior snooker section of the Titan PSI 2000 63rd Senior National Billiards and 21st Junior Billiards and Snooker championships blanking a hapless Kamal Chawla 3-0 on Saturday.

But the day was not as lucky for local favourite Anuj Jhunjhunwala as he lost to Maharashtra’s Jamshed Mistry in a thrilling five framer. Anuj, who had joined professional ranks in billiards last December looked a shadow of his original self going down 40-69, 50-20, 22-59, 65-36, 40-65.

Joining the second seed in the quarter-finals, from which the winners will enter the league, were Karnataka’s Rajiv Dusija, Gujarat’s Priyam Parekh and Maharashtra’s Manav Panchal. Rajiv outplayed Bihar’s Neeraj Kumar and Priyam drubbed West Bengal’s Phillip Crizzle by identical 3-0 margins, while Manav defeated AP’s Prashanth Raju losing the third frame.

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In late session matches, top seed Gaurav Anand of Railways stormed into the quarter-finals drubbing Paresh Sanghani of Kerala by a lopsided 72-26, 77-1, 74-17 margin. Tarun Gupta, who had beaten Karnatka’s Brendon Hopkirk staging a comeback in the earlier round also made it to the last eight stage defeating Sumeet Basu 71-37, 49-36, 62-12.

Completing the challenge for the league phase was Delhi’s Manan Chandra, who emerged a 27-53, 69-23, 72-39, 89-6 winner over Tamil Nadu’s Nitin Bhindal.Earlier in the day, the snooker enthusiasts were in for disappointment, when seven walkovers were witnessed in the first round.

The QF Line-Up

Gaurav Anand vs Tarun Gupta

* Manan Chandra vs Jamshed Mistry

* Rajiv Duseja vs Manav Panchal

* Priyam Parekh vs Siddarth Anand.