Snooker: Habib stuns reigning champion Alok, enters semis

Rafat Habib of Railways sent defending champion Alok Kumar of ONGC packing by recording a stunning 4-2 victory in the best-of-7 frame quarter-final match of the MIG Cricket Club-organised third Masters National Snooker Championship here on Wednesday.

The Railway cueist was steady and compiled a break of 61 in third as he cruised to 31-59, 64-27, 66-19, 49-55, 63-29 and 60-17 victory.

Habib will meet Maharashtra's Cherag Ramakrishnan in the semi-final.

Ramakrishnan enjoyed a good run against his state mate and arch-rival Sarang Shroff and went on to carve out a 4-2 victory.

Earlier, cue sports legend Geet Sethi of Gujarat and Delhi challenger Anuj Uppal took different routes to set up a clash in the other semi-final.

 

The former National snooker champion Sethi maintained the winning momentum and eased past Karnatakas D Rajkumar, posting a 4-1 victory.

On the side table, Uppal got the better of ONGCs Dhruv Sitwala 4-3 in a match that went to the wire.

Results: Quarter-finals: Geet Sethi (GUJ) beat D Rajkumar (KTK) 4-1 (56-17, 54-30, 09-58, 71(61)-24, 63-16); Anuj Uppal (DEL) beat Dhruv Sitwala (PSPB) 4-3 (60-18, 80 (65)-05, 85-27, 51-61, 00-93(93), 70-78, 72-21).

Cherag Ramakrishnan (MH) beat Sarang Shroff (MH) 4-2 (77-71, 79(52)-08, 73(62)-00, 00-73, 37-65, 60-13); Rafath Habib (RLY) beat Alok Kumar (PSPB) 4-2 (31-59, 64-27, 66(61)- 19, 49-55, 63-29, 60-17).