CCI Snooker: Bharadia topples champ Damani

Home challenger Mukund Bharadia caused a major flutter as he sent defending champion Brijesh Damani of Indian Oil crashing out of the CCI All India Open Snooker Tournament here Sunday.

The Cricket Club of India cueist showed plenty of grit as he quashed the aspirations of the Kolkata-based Damani by snatching a nerve-wracking 4-3 victoryin the best-of-7-frame round of 16 match.

Bharadia struggled to settle down initially and conceded the initiative to Damani who hit a break of 69 to take the first frame before going on to win a close second to take a 2-0 lead.

The second ranked Maharashtra player Bharadia steadily and confidently got into his stride and comfortably pocketed the next three frames to nose ahead 3-2.

Last year's champ Damani with some steady and cautious play won the sixth frame on the pink to force the seventh frame.

The decider was another close affair as both players adopted safety tactics in an attempt to gain the upper hand.

Bharadia with some bold and gutsy play stayed ahead before winning the decider on the pink to clinch a 22-82, 24-56, 69-24, 74-48, 65-21, 55-67 and 47-38 victory to set-up a quarter-final meeting with top seed Pankaj Advani.

Meanwhile, Advani of ONGC encountered initial resistance from Anurag Giri of Madhya Pradesh before posting a 4-2 win.

India number two Laxman Rawat and number three Aditya Mehta both recorded convincing victories to ease into the quarter-finals.

Results round of 32:Anurag Giri (MP) beat Yasin Merchant (Mumbai) 4-1 (15-90, 62-50, 69(68)-59, 59-25, 67-36);
Lucky Vatnani (Telangana) beat Sparsh Perwani (Mumbai) 4-3 (24-67(52), 77-58, 62-19, 33-77(45), 45-40, 7-61, 66(52)-0); Aditya Mehta (ONGC) beat Avinash Kumar (Delhi) 80(80)-1, 80(72)-0, 70(50)-38, 71-16); Himanshu Jain (Telangana) beat Monu Choudhry (Delhi) 4-1 (59-55, 61-43, 69-8, 11-71, 66-18); Varun Madan (Delhi) beat E. Panduranga (Railways) 4-2 (51-62, 78(78)-42, 71-52, 75-28, 48-51, 73-31);