Pune, Jan 31 (IANS) Defending champion Aditya Mehta (PSPB) recorded a break of 134 on the second day of the 78th National Snooker Championship here Tuesday as he lined up for a berth in the knock-out stage with a second consecutive win.
Playing against qualifier Yogesh Sharma of Maharashtra, the Mumbai-based Mehta was tentative at the start when Sharma attempted escapes to keep his opponent at bay in the first frame.
There was slow progress before table opened up and Mehta was able to pot better colour balls than Sharma to take the frame 68-55. Again, Sharma tried to find escapes in the second frame, but once Mehta found a clear line he went on to clean the reds before taking the frame 71-3.
Not getting locked in snooks, Mehta, who has been playing on the pro Tour in England this season, dished out an amazing 134 table clearance to post his second win in the league 68-55, 71-3, 134-0.
Last year’s runner-up, Alok Kumar, also of PSPB, scored his first win with a 3-0 decision against Lalsanzela of Mizoram in Group B. Alok had just one notable break, a 50, in the third frame before he won 68-40, 50-11, 76-39.
Qualifier Brijesh Damani won back-to-back matches, including one against No.3 seed Neeraj Kumar of Railways. Earlier, Bengal cueist Damani had beaten Sajan Bopanna of Karnataka 3-0.
Meanwhile, Kamal Chawla of Railways and four-time champion Pankaj Advani of PSPB recorded easy wins in their second league matches. Chawla defeated Anand Raghuvanshi of Maharashtra 71-34, 53-47, 59-14, while Advani blanked Dhawal Mackwana of Gujarat 83-36, 75-20, 67-26, including a break of 56 in the first frame.
The results (league):
Group A: Sunil Kumar (HP) bt Sumesh Turki (J and K) 3-0; Aditya Mehta (PSPB) bt Yogesh Sharma (Mah) 3-0.
Group B: Bharat Sisodiya (MP) bt Lalsangzela (Miz) 3-1; Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Lalsanzela (Miz) 3-0.
Group C: Brijesh Damani (Ben) bt Sajan Bopanna (Kar) 3-0; Bhadresh Panchal (Guj) bt Aamir Hussain (Ben) 3-2; Damani bt Neeraj Kumar (Rlys) 3-0.
Group D: K Venkatesham (Rlys) bt Pratik Jain (MP) 3-0; IH Manudev (Kar) bt M Yogesh Sharma (Kar) 3-0.
Group E: Himanshu Jain (AP) bt Anuj Sharma (Goa) 3-0; Kamal Chawla (Rlys) bt Anand Raghuvanshi (Mah) 3-0.
Group F: Rajat Khaneja (Chd) bt Nikhil Ootam (Mah) 3-1; Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Dhawal Mackwana (Guj) 3-0.
Group G: Divya Sharma (Har) bt Dhruv Varma (Pun) 3-2; Manan Chandra (PSPB) bt Rishit Jain (Del) 3-2.
Group H: IV Rajeev (AP) bt Varun Madan (Del) 3-2; Ahsan Ul Haq (Ori) bt Sukumar Barman (Asm) 3-0; Rafath Habib (Rlys) bt Varun Madan (Del) 3-0; Rajeev bt Ahsan Ul Haq 3-0.
Group I: Lucky Vatnani (AP) bt J Varun Kumar (TN) 3-1; Amarnath Sharma (Meg) bt Mridul Das (Asm) 3-2; Vatnani bt Rupesh Shah (PSPB) 3-1; Varun Kumar (TN) bt Sharma 3-0.
Group J: Sumit Talwar (Chd) bt Deepak A (Kar) 3-2; Vinayak Agarwal (UP) bt AR Arjun (Kar) 3-0; Sourav Kothari (PSPB) bt Agarwal 3-0.
Group K: Vipin Premi (UP) bt Rahul Bhargava (Raj) 3-1; Vijay Nichani (TN) bt Pushpinder Singh (Rlys) 3-1; Shivam Arora (Mah) bt Premi 3-0.
Group L: Shoaib Khan (Ben) bt Rupesh Chauhan (HP) 3-0; Durga Prasad (Rlys) bt Akshay Kumar (UP) 3-2; Prasad bt Devendra Joshi (PSPB) 3-1; Shoaib Khan (Ben) bt Akshay Kumar 3-2.
Group M: Senthil (TN) bt Valney Gomendis (Goa) 3-0; Shahbaaz Adil Khan (PSPB) bt Shankar Rao (AP) 3-0; Senthil bt Kamal Rohmetra (J and K) 3-0.
Group N: Gunjan Patel (Guj) bt Imran Ganj (TN) 3-1; Sundeep Gulati (Del) bt Rishabh Pandya (Mah) 3-0; Lalrina Renthlei (Miz) bt Patel 3-1.
Group O: Siddharth Parikh (Rlys) bt Shyam Jagtiani (Ben) 3-0; Hasan Badami (Mah) bt Rushabh Jain (Mah) 3-2; Dhvaj Haria (Guj) bt Shyam Jagtiani (Ben) 3-0.
Group P: Rovin D’Souza (Mah) bt Anupam Jha (Bih) 3-0; R Girish (Rlys) bt Faisal Khan (Rlys) 3-2; Manish Jain (Ben) bt D’Souza 3-1.
