Telangana Open Snooker Championship: Vatnani lucky

P. Hemanth Kumar had a tough time winning while Rajiv Inuganti romped home comfortably in their fourth round matches of the Telangana Open Snooker Championship sponsored by Sreenidhi Educational Group being played here.

Hemanth fought hard to defeat Chetan Chabra in the best of seven frames match 4-3 — 41-46, 54-17, 63-28, 56-11, 40-63, 52-63, 64-27. Despite losing first frame closely at 41-46, Hemanth took three straight frames 54-17, 63-28 and 56-11.

Gritty Chetan turned on heat and clinched two back-to-back frames — 63-40, 63-52 as he levelled the match score at 3-3. The heat was on the table as the match went to a nerve-wracking decider. Hemanth powered by his skills took the final frame by storm at 64-27 to complete the win.

In another match, Lucky Vatnani survived a scare by James Sundar Raj. James produced an excellent display of his potting ability and fighting skills as the match went on to the last ball in the deciding frame. Lucky Vatnani held his nerve in the final moment and managed to snatch a 4-3 (51-78, 69-34, 59-24, 45-56, 71-55, 45-57, 49-37) win.

In another match, Rajiv sealed a comfortable 4-0 (87-8, 80(80)-13, 70-44, 57-13) victory over Dev Pal. Rajiv was too dominant from start to finish as he kept his rival away from the table for most of the time.

Rajiv was very confident about his shots and succeeded in playing cleverly. In the first frame, Rajiv gave very less chance for his rival to gain points and won the frame 87-8. Buoyed by the opening frame win, Rajiv upped the intensity and the only time Dev could gain points was when he initially got the chance because the former didn’t give a second opportunity as he scored 80 straight points to take it 80(80)-13. In the next two frames also Rajiv was the victor and he went on to sail into the next round comfortably.