Pune: Shivam Arora and Liyakat Shaikh, both from Pune scored contrasting wins in their respective second round matches of the Senior Snooker qualifying round of the Maharashtra State Senior Snooker & Billiards Selection (leg-1) Championship 2018 and played at the Deccan Gymkhana.
Both, Arora and Shaikh qualified for the main draw, which is scheduled to start from Tuesday.
In the best-of-five-frame encounter, Arora was on a roll and with not much resistance coming from Satara’s Ganesh Jadhav he breezed to a 3-0 victory, with the frame scores reading 72-2, 59-13 and 72-13.
Meanwhile, Shaikh showing great determination brushed aside a strong challenge from his city mate Rohan Sakalkar and snatched a tight 3-2 win in another second round contest.
Shaikh made a bright start by winning the first frame before Sakalkar put up a solid fight back and went on to take the next two frames and stitched together a break of 52 in the third.
But, Shaikh came roaring back and managed to pocket the last two frames to clinch a thrilling (76-40, 41-72, 7-96, 64-27 and 60-52 frames scores victory.
Chiplun cueist, Siddhesh Mulay also encountered stiff challenge from Pune’s seasoned campaingner Samar Khandelwal before he managed to scrape through winning 3-2 (77-47, 58-62, 71-24, 30-61 and 59-37) to qualify for the main draw.
Kaiwalya Chawan from Satara who has impressed all till now also advanced to next phase after easily defeating Pune’s Tushar Sawdi 3-0 (46-42, 53-19, 53-18) in another second-round match.
Results:
Qualifying round 2: Shivam Arora bt Ganesh Jadhav 3-0 (72-2, 59-13, 72-13); Arun Kumar bt Satish Karad 3-1 (66-42, 10-48, 57-7, 63-25); Rajeev Sharma bt Chintamani Jadhav 3-0 (70-47, 64-23, 55-42); Kaiwalya Chawan bt Tushar Sawdi 3-0 (46-42, 53-19, 53-18); Liyakat Shaikh bt Rohan Sakalkar 3-2(76-40, 41-72, 7-96(52), 64-27, 60-52); Siddharth Tembe bt Omar Farooqui 3-1 (62-30, 61-36, 17-64, 68-30); Siddhesh Mulay bt Samar Khandelwal 3-2 (77-47, 58-62, 71-24, 30-61, 59-37); Harmehr Mago bt Srinivas Kasturi 3-0 (72-3, 54-20, 61-16); Sparsh Pherwani bt Yogesh Lohiya 3-0 (64-40, 52-2, 50-32); Sumehr Mago bt Nilesh Patankar 3-0 (65-1, 56-38, 72-35); Raajiv Lal bt Pankaj Vanjania 3-2 (38-57, 60-24, 30-53, 65-45, 71-33).
