CCI Snooker Classic 2024
Taha Khan easily marches ahead
24-Feb-2024
Aditya Agrawal
Mumbai, February 24: Taha Khan of Pune was in impressive form and romped to a straight frame 4-0 win against home challenger Siddharth Khemani in a best-of-7-frame final round qualifying match of the Rs 12.5 lakh prize-money CCI Snooker Classic 2024, organised by the Cricket Club of India, and played at the CCI’s Sir Wilson Jones billiards hall on Saturday. Potting consistently, Khan raced past Khemani recording a 54-43, 72-58, 58-34 and 56-9 victory to progress to the main draw.
Earlier, in a second round match, Aditya Agrawal was on song and fired in two substantial breaks of 51 and 56 in the second and third frames to blank Sameer Chabaria 3-0 (55-6. 74-16, 77-16) victory.
In another second round match, Vinay Swaminathan was in great touch and dashed the hopes of Tamil Nadu’s Anupama Ramchandran charging to a 3-0 win. The Chennai cueist Anupama, who won the under-21 crown in the World women’s snooker championship in Bangkok last March was unable to match the superior play of Swaminathan who with a break of 69 in the first frame went on to record a 91-0, 54-44 and 54-30 win.
In the previous round, Anupama rolled in breaks of 59 and 44 and went on to defeat Shakir Qureshi 3-1 in a first round encounter.
Results – Final qualifying: Suraj Veer bt Saad Sayed 4-2 (66-47, 22-81, 25-55, 58-32, 50-42, 80-42); Taha Khan bt Siddharth Khemani 4-0 (54-43, 72-58, 58-34, 56-9);
Round 2: Aditya Agrawal bt Sameer Chabaria 3-0 (55-6. 74(51)-16, 77(56)-16); Shailendra Dangal bt Saqlain Mushtaq 3-2 (76-20, 30-55, 80-16, 23-59, 58-19); Rafat Habib bt Saifuddin 3-0 (73-34, 55-33, 68-54); Nalin Patel bt Rohan Pal 3-2 (22-63, 60-13 56-43, 70-87(49), 74-37); Mahesh Jagdale bt Adarsh Verma 3-0 (63-41, 66-14, 75-32); Vinay Swaminathan bt Anupama Ramchandran 3-0 (91(69)-0, 54-44, 54-30);