Nitesh, Kanishk smoothly sail in the round of 64

Mumbai players Nitesh Madan and Kanishk Janjaria showed smooth progression in the CCI All India Open Snooker Championship at the club’s Sir Wilson Jones Billiards Room.

Nitesh of Bombay Gymkhana, continued with his impressive showing and maintained his fine run of form as he blanked Avenish Shah of Mandpeshwar Civic Foundation, Mumbai by a 3-0 margin in a third round match. Displaying a calm, composed approach Nitesh, who has not dropped a frame in the two earlier rounds, cruised to a 77-37, 46-26, and 67-9 win. He made a break of 48 in the third frame.

Earlier, the home challenger Kaniskh Janjaria of Cricket Club of India halted the fine run of Bombay Gymkhana’s Abhishek Bajaj by winning their third round contest coasting to a fluent 3-1 win. Kaniskh kept it simple and potted steadily to comfortably win the first two frames to grab a 2-0 lead.

However, a slight lapse in concentration allowed Abhishek to win a close third and bridge the gap. But, Kanishk regained his touch and form and pocketed the fourth to complete a satisfying 59-27, 62-28, 61-66 and 55-39 win to march into the fourth round.

Meanwhile, Khizar Raoof of Telangana came from behind to overcome Karnataka’s R. Santosh Kumar  3-2 in a well-contested second round match late Saturday evening. Dr. Khizar lost the first two frames but in remarkable fashion went on to pocket the next three frames to clinch a 9-55, 20-55, 51-41, 63-55 and 67-37 victory.

Raoof (Telangana) produced another fighting performance to tame Avinash Kumar of Delhi 3-1 (41-62, 64-24, 55-17, 78-17), while Mumbai cueist Anand Raghuvanshi of Hindu Gymkhana started with a 59 break in the first frame and charged past Anas Ali of Surat winning at 3-1 ( 84-4, 16-66, 62-55, 47-44);