The Matunga Gymkhana billiards hall seems to be happy hunting ground for Himanshu Jain of GAIL (India) Ltd., as he emerged winner of the 9-Red event last year. The PSPB cueist continued with his impressive showing to book his berth in the final of the Matunga Gymkhana 6-Red Open Snooker Tournament 2018, sponsored and hosted by Matunga Gymkhana, under the auspices of BSAM and played at the gymkhana’s billiards hall.
The Telangana-based Himanshu produced another determined performance and came out victorious from a gruelling tussle with Laxman Rawat of Bombay Gymkhana by rolling to a close 6-5 victory in the best-of-11 frame semi-final encounter on Sunday.
In the other semi-final played on an adjacent table, was also a close absorbing affair, before Faisal Khan of Railways managed to win a crucial deciding frame to clinch a tight 6-5 win against Pune challenger Taaha Khan.
Earlier, top-seeded Kamal Chawla of Railways made an early exit as he succumbed to a 1-5 defeat at the hands of Himanshu Jain in a best-of-9 frame quarter-final match.
Chawla started with a bang, constructing a break of 42 to quickly win the opening frame. But, thereafter, he got bogged down as Jain, made a strong reply and with steady, consistent potting pocketed the next five frames in succession to run out worthy winner, with the frame scores reading at 0-42(42 break), 42-7, 49-18, 37-17, 33-3 and 35-0 to book his place in the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, Taaha Khan of Pune and Faisal Khan of Indian Railway were both in good nick and recorded authoritative 5-0 victories in their respective quarter-final encounters and set up a meeting in the semi-finals.
