ALL INDIA 9 BALL POOL TOURNAMENT 2016
India No. 1 Jain escapes to victory
14-Sep-2016
Himanshu Jain
India No. 1 Jain escapes to victory
National champion Himanshu Jain of Hyderabad escaped to a thrilling 9-8 win to give the main draw an explosive start, in the Otters Club All India 9-Ball Pool Tournament, on Wednesday.
Trailing 1-5 and 3-6 in the best-of-nine rack contest, Jain rallied with a spectacular late burst to beat qualifier Nitesh Madan of Railways for his second win in Pool B, after prevailing over another qualifier Rahul Sachdev of Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana in his opener.
“I never expected to win after falling behind by quite a huge margin,” said Jain. “After playing so well in the first half, Nitesh suddenly began committing errors. I chose to take each rack at a time and was enjoying the game.”
In other close ties that went down to the wire, Divya Sharma of Haryana beat Yasin Merchant 9-8 in Pool C, while Lucky Vatnani of Hyderabad overcame Zenul Arsiwala of the host club by the same margin in a neck-and-neck battle in Pool H.
2013 Asian under-21 snooker bronze medallist Sahil Nayar of Punjab and Monu Choudhari of Delhi won two ties in a row for a dream start in Pools C and E, respectively.
Results: Main Draw: Pool A: Rishabh Thakkar bt Hitanshu Manchanda 9-6.
Pool B: Himanshu Jain bt Rahul Sachdev 9-6; Sachdev bt Abhimanyu Gandhi 9-1; Jain bt Nitesh Madan 9-8; Madan bt Gandhi 9-0.
Pool C: Sahil Nayar bt Shahbaaz Khan 9-5; Divya Sharma bt Yasin Merchant 9-8; Nayar bt Merchant 9-5.
Pool D: Dharmender Lily bt Pushpender Singh 9-5; Ayush Kumar bt Sameer Bhalla 9-3.
Pool E: Monu Choudhari bt Dhvaj Haria 9-3; Choudhari bt Hasan Badami 9-5.
Pool G: Faisal Khan bt Rafath Habib 9-6.
Pool H: Lucky Vatnani bt Zenul Arsiwala 9-8.