Kolkata's seasoned cueist Shakeel Ahmed recorded a hard-fought 3-2 win against Mumbai's Vishal Gehani in a second round match of the CCI All India Open Snooker Championship on Monday.
Shakeel, from Eastern Railway, easily pocketed the opening two frames before the local cueist fought back to win the next two and level the scores.
In the deciding fifth, Shakeel kept his cool and grabbed every opportunity, even as Vishal missed easy pots, and went on to complete a 88-20, 61-22, 19-64, 61-70, 48-16 victory to progress to the third round.
However, Shakeel's city-mate Shoaib Khan fell by the wayside as he suffered a stunning 1-3 defeat to Delhi's Harpreet Singh.
The Delhi cueist potted steadily and romped to a convincing 66-27, 31-67, 78-25, 57-10 win to advance to the third round.
Two other Railway cueists, E Panduranga and K Srinu, steamrolled their respective opponents to seal their berths in the round of 64.
In a third round match, Panduranga overcame Hanish Sharma of Delhi 3-0 (74-44, 89-44, 78-53) while Srinu proved too good for Luv Kukreja, also from Delhi, and raced to a 3-0 (68-56, 67-31, 55-8) win.
Mumbai's Nikhil Saigal compiled a break of 54 in the third frame and powered his way past Nagpur's Ashish Yadhav, storming to a 3-0 (48-7, 61-15, 67-35) victory.
Pune cueist Sanket Mutha worked hard to prevail over Harpreet Saluja of Nagpur3-2 (69-29, 90-10, 52-59, 56-59, 65-22).
The results:
Round 2: Abhishek Ahuja (Delhi) beat Mahesh Jagdale (Mumbai) 3-1 (63-37, 13-68, 53-27, 80-21);M S Arun (Karnataka) beat Ken Simon (MP) 3-0 (78-36, 76-63, 59-22); Shakeel Ahmed (Kolkata) beat Vishal Gehani (Mumbai) 3-2 (88-20, 61-22, 19-64, 61-70, 48-16); Harpreet Singh (Delhi) beat Shoaib Khan (Railways) 3-1 (66-27, 31-67, 78-25, 57-10); Sanket Mutha (Pune) beat Harpreet Saluja (Nagpur) 3-2 (69-29, 90-10, 52-59, 56-59, 65-22); E Panduranga (Railways) beat Mitang Soni (Mumbai) 3-0 (78-48, 62-21, 64(40)-1).
Round 3: K Srinu (Railways) beat Luv Kukreja (Delhi) 3-0 (68-56, 67-31, 55-8); E Panduranga (Railways) beat Hanish Sharma (Delhi) 3-0 (74-44, 89-44, 78-53); Faisal Khan (Railways) beat Anuj Agarwal 3-1 (56-30, 92-24, 20-44, 49-40); Saad Sayed (Pune) beat Ankur Nanda (Chandigarh) 3-0 (66-9, 71(42)-28, 39-34); Rovin D'Souza (Railways) beat Pankaj Khatri (Nashik) 3-0 (63-22, 59-40, 54-46); Vishal Vaya (Mumbai) beat Abimanyu Gandhi (Mumbai) 3-2 (64-8, 59-10, 35-66(42), 0-67, 66-17).
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