Jeetu Grover flew high after winning a nerve-wracking game to emerge a 3-2 victor over Chetan Chabra in the 32nd Fateh Maidan Club Open Billiards and Snookers tournament being played in Hyderabad.
Both players were technically sound and made good use of the visits to the table. But it was Jeetu who got off the blocks early. He was very focused and potted ample points to leave his rival way behind to take the first frame 73-46.
The second and the third frames turned out to be a chaos for Jeetu as Chetan ruled the table and kept the former at bay. In the second frame Chetan totally outwitted his opponent as he picked straight points to ring in a 62-22 verdict to level the match.
Both players fought well in the third frame which was decided by a narrow margin of nine points. It was Chetan again who edged ahead of Jeetu to wrap the frame at 52-43.
Stung by the reverse, Jeetu upped the ante and brought his ‘A’ game to the table. He began brilliantly well by potting balls with ease before finishing with a flourish to take the frame with a thumping 72-25 score and take the match into a winner-takes-all decider.
Buoyed by his new found rhythm, Jeetu continued the good run and kept scoring points at a steady pace to gradually edge his opponent out of the game. Chetan tried desperately to catch up but in vain as Jeetu won the frame 69-36 and with it, the match.
In another match, M. N. Ranjeet scored a thrilling 3-2 win over Juman Khan as the frames scores read 66-59, 63-28, 51-65, 34-60, 60-45.
The first frame was close as both players pocketed points before Ranjeet edged ahead to take the lead.
Ranjeet took the second frame as well as he did not allow enough space to his opponent evident from the 35-point margin of victory.
However, Juman found his mojo and hit right back. He sealed the third frame with a 14-point margin before overwhelming his opponent with a 26-point victory in the fourth to level the match scores.
Both players felt the nerves in the decider which witnessed quite a few hits as well as misses as Ranjeet and Juman appeared solid at times and shaky in other situations. After a ding-dong battle, it was Ranjeet who outwitted his opponent 60-45 to heave a sigh of relief as he celebrated his victory.
In another match, Rajiv Inuganti drubbed Vishal Kumar 3-0, the frame scores reading 76-2, 63-56, 84-1. Barring the second frame, in which he allowed his rival 56 points, Rajiv dominated Vishal from start to finish in an absolutely dominant display.
