Aditya Mehta trounces Rawat to storm into snooker final

Aditya Mehta

Ace cueist Aditya Mehta trounced giant-killer Laxman Rawat 6-0 to sail into the final of the RKG Pro Snooker Series at the National Sports Club of India in Mumbai on Friday.


Aditya Mehta

Mehta, of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board, whipped former junior national champion Rawat, who shocked ex-IBSF world champion Pankaj Advani 5-4 in the morning quarterfinals, 76-0, 68-45, 80(80)-0, 80(52)-11, 71-7, 44-0 in a lop-sided semi-final encounter.

Mehta, the country's lone player on the world pro circuit, now awaits the winner of the second semi-final between Varun Madan of Delhi and Dharminder Lilly of Punjab in the final to be played tonight. Madan swept away Kamal Chawla (Railways) 5-1.

Initially Chawla was penalised with one frame for being late but Varun capitalised the match in his way scoring three breaks to knock out Chawla. One quarter-final match was played last night in which Lilly edged out Kolkata leg champion Brijesh Damani of PSPB
5-3.

In the morning, PSPB's Advani suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Railways cueist Rawat. Rawat led 3-1 and 4-2 before former IBSF world champion Advani fought back to draw level by uncorking a century break in the seventh frame.

Rawat was, however, not to be denied as he won a tight final frame when Advani missed the last pink ball to enter the last four for a meeting with Mehta, who cruised into the semi- finals by defeating Manan Chandra of PSPB 5-1.