National Snooker: Mehta, Chawla in title round

Chennai -  Aditya Mehta, the 26-year-old from Mumbai and the only Indian on the snooker pro circuit, qualified for his second consecutive final in the National Snooker Championship when he  edged past former junior champion Shabaz Adil Khan 5-4 in the semi-finals here on Friday.

Mehta will take on 32-year-old Kamal Chawla from Bhopal who overcame qualifier Brijesh Damani (Bengal) 5-2 in the other semi-final.

The professional grind has obviously sharpened Mehta’s game as also toughening him up mentally as he saw off giant-killer Khan who had knocked out title contender and former champion  Pankaj Advani in the pre-quarter-finals.

In a match that swung from one extreme to the other, Mehta looked well on way to an easy win when he jumped to a 4-0 lead, but Khan picked up the gauntlet to take the next four frames to  push the match into the decider.

It was in the ninth frame that Mehta showcased his prowess as he seized an early opening to post a match-winning break of 66 to book his berth in the final.

Chawla, playing at his own pace, turned back a 0-2 deficit and won five frames on the trot aided by breaks of 67 and 51 for his maiden entry into the final.

The results:

Semi-finals: Kamal Chawla (Railways) bt Brijesh Damani (Bengal) 5-2 (70-7, 19-64, 35-70, 67-32, 90-15, 103(67)-0, 70(51)-45); Aditya Mehta (PSPB) bt Shahabaz Adil Khan (PSPB) 5-4 (71-43,

75(68)-1, 105 (56,49)-7, 70-20, 30-69, 28-61, 33-71, 38-67, 86(66)-1).

Quarter-finals: Mehta bt Siddharth Parikh (Rlys) 5-0; Khan bt Himanshu Jain (AP) 5-3; Damani (Ben) bt Manan Chandra (PSPB) 5-2; Chawla bt Lucky Vatnani (AP) 5-3.

Pre-quarterfinals: Mehta bt Sarang Shroff (Mah) 4-0; Parikh bt Pulkit Thukral (Del) 4-1; Jain bt Shivam Arora (Bih) 4-3; Khan bt Pankaj Advani (PSPB) 4-2; Damani bt Vijay Nichani (TN) 4-1;

Chandra bt Sourav Kothari (PSPB) 4-2; Vatnani bt IV Rajeev (AP) 4-1; Chawla bt Alok Kumar (PSPB) 4-3.