Ali, Badami score hard-fought wins

Anas Ali of Surat produced another steady performance to edge out Ispreet Singh Chadha of Mumbai by four frames to three in an exciting and well contested second round encounter of the 4th Indian Open snooker qualifying tournament, at the Cricket Club of India (CCI) billiards hall here Thursday afternoon.

In a match of fluctuating fortunes, Chadha started well by winning the opening frame before the Surat cueist Ali grabbed the next two to go ahead 2-1. Mumbai youngster Ispreet charged back by easily winning the fourth to draw level at 2-all. Later, Ali and Chadha traded the next two frames, with the former winning a close fifth, and taking the match to the decider. Ali held his nerves in the crucial seventh frame to scrape through for a hard-earned 13-63, 61-31, 49-40, 16-66, 49-45, 36-69, 61-28 victory.

In another match that went the distance, Mumbai challenger Hasan Badami showed plenty of grit and gumption to overcame Mukund Baradia by a 4-3 margin with the frames scores reading 62-69, 55-19,53-56, 66-31, 60-75, 71-14, 73-27 in his favour to progress to the third round.

Meanwhile, another Mumbai cueist Rovin D'Souza faced no such problems against Vilas V. as he comfortably went on to complete a 4-0 (70-07, 74-47, 60-17, 61-37) win in another second match.

Results (Round-2): Sumit Saldulkar beat Suyesh Moorpuna 4-2 (42-89, 62-18, 62-18, 51-27, 32-54, 58-34); Taaha Khan (Pune) beat S. Magesh 4-2 (03-58, 47-19, 17-58, 66-17, 78-49, 61-48); Rovin D'Souza beat Vilas V. 4-0 (70(45)-07, 74-47, 60-17, 61-37); Rahul Sachdev beat Nikhil Ghadge 4-0 (57-53, 55-09, 77-12, 70-40); Nikhil Saigal beat Chintamani Jadhav (Pune) 4-2 (52-50, 46-60, 28-44, 69-58, 71-20, 61-33); Anas Ali (Surat) beat Ispreet Singh Chadha 4-3 (13-63, 61-31, 49-40, 16-66, 49-45, 36-69, 61-28); Manav Panchal beat Nitesh Madan 4-1 (70-38, 44-61, 70-31, 76-67, 64-08); V. Subramanian beat Avenish Shah 4-1 (59-38, 09-56, 64-08, 67-35, 56-25); Manish Jain beat Kekoo Nickolson 4-0 (57-15, 77-72, 62(45)-16, 73(42)-14); Shoaib Khan beat Mayank Bhavsar 4-0 (61-43, 63-18, 62-25, 72-09); Sunil Jain beat Shabaaz Khan 4-3 (39-54, 56-46, 15-66, 01-83, 69-45, 65-45, 64-61); Zubin Lelinwala beat Pramod Pole 4-0 (64-33, 56-13, 64-12, 65-22); Aparjeet Mital beat Pawan K 4-1 (19-55, 49-36, 52-13, 61-21, 53-22); Hasan Badami beat Mukund Baradia 4-3 (62-69, 55-19,53-56, 66-31, 60-75, 71-14, 73-27).