Merchant blanks Bharadia to clinch snooker title

Yasin Merchant of the Khar Gymkhana won the snookercrown in theBSAM Maharashtra State Senior Snooker & Billiards Selection (leg-2) Championship here Thursday.

The experienced campaigner, a former two-time Asian snooker champion,kept it simple and potted steadily to curb the aspirations ofMukund Bharadia of the Cricket Club of India by coasting to a straight frame 4-0 victory.

Bharadia was not his usual self and was unable to build on the opportunities to construct the big breaks and that proved to be his undoing.

On the other hand, Merchant managed to compile a tidy break of 35 in the first and then made a run of 44 to pocket the fourth and complete a deserving 69-28, 60-47, 70-47 and 64-33 triumph.

Sparsh Pherwani and Bharadia, both of CCI, finished as Maharashtra's No 1 and 2 ranked players.

They both had an identical combined tally of 12 points each, but the former won the play-off to become the number one ranked snooker player.

Pherwani had won the first leg to pick up 9 points and earned 3 points after he lost in the quarter-finals in the second.

Bharadia, who finished second best in the second leg, got 7 points to add to the 5 points he had received for reaching the semi-finals of the first leg.

Merchant, who had skipped the first leg, picked up 9 points after he became champion and also the third ranked player.

Hindu Gymkhanas Anand Raghuvanshi, with a quarter- final and semi-final finish, tallied 8 points and was placed fourth.

Result final:Yasin Merchant (Khar Gym) beat Mukund Bharadia (CCI) 4-0 (69-28, 60-47, 70-47, 64-33).

The top-four ranked players: No. 1:Sparsh Pherwani (CCI) (1stleg 9 + 2ndleg - 3 = 12 pts).

No.2:Mukund Bharadia (CCI) (5+7 = 12) No. 3:Yasin Merchant (Khar Gym) (0+9 = 9) No. 4:Anand Raghuvanshi (Hindu Gym) (3+5 = 8).