Mehta retains national snooker crown

Pune - Showing that he has matured into a class player, Mumbai-based cueist Aditya Mehta won his second National snooker title in a space of six months beating IBSF World No.3 Kamal Chawla 6-2 in the final here Saturday.

Down 0-2, Mehta of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) took his chances once Chawla (Railways) let go possible pots and crawled his way back into the match to take the next six frames in a row to close out the affair in just under four hours.

Playing his maiden National final, Chawla began confidently as the two tried to test each other in the beginning. Chawla was tad bit clearer in his focus as he kept earning small but crucial breaks to take the first frame 60-2 and the second 65-48.

The decisive moment came in the third when Chawla missed a pink and Mehta responded with a break of 30 and eventually won the frame to get back into the match.

Thereafter, Mehta punished Chawla for every lapse and grew in confidence as the match progressed. After taking the fourth, it was Mehta all the way as he crafted a break of 80 in the eighth to close the match.

Results:

Final: Aditya Mehta (PSPB) bt Kamal Chawla (Rlys) 6- 2-(60, 48-65, 72-49, 69-38, 80-9, 71-27, 67 (58)-1, 80 (80)-0).

For 3-4 positions: Shahbaaz Adil Khan (PSPB) bt Brijesh Damani (Ben) 3-1 (33-61,76-21, 94 (71)-7, 67-28).

5-8 placing matches: Lucky Vatnani (AP) bt Manan Chandra (PSPB) 2-0; Himanshu Jain (AP) bt Siddharth Parikh (Rlys) 2-0. For 5-6: Jain bt Vatnani 2-0. For 7-8: Chandra bt Parikh 2-1.