Snooker Nationals: Top seed Varun Madan crashes out

Top seeded Varun Madan paid for the straight loss to Younis Kouchey and crashed out of the National Snooker Championship here on Wednesday.

Six-ball snooker champion Kamal Chawla (pic) was defeated by Ketan Chawla (3-1)

Top seeded Varun Madan paid for the straight loss to Younis Kouchey and crashed out of the National Snooker Championship here on Wednesday. He was involved in a three-way tie where Khizar Raoof (+3) and Kouchey (+2) finished with a better frame average to make it to the knockout stage. Madan’s frame average was a poor -1.

The talented Aditya Mehta was in excellent form following a straight frame win over Anand Raghuvanshi with breaks of 72, 62 and 60. It was his second win.

Ketan Chawla pulled off a surprise victory against Six-ball snooker champion Kamal Chawla with a 3-1 verdict while the fast-improving S. Shrikrishna went down 1-3 to Himanshu Jain. The ambitious Shrikrishna erred in attempting some difficult shots even though he qualified from the group.

For Dharminder Lily, it was a routine affair as he put it across Vinayak Agarwal 3-1. Lily managed a black-ball win in the opening frame and kept his cool to register his second win.

Anurag Giri, Rahul Sachdev and Pushpinder Singh were the other impressive winners of the day.

With Pankaj Advani deciding to withdraw from the snooker championship, having earned direct entry to international events, the stage is now open for others to stake claims. Madan, the best bet, went out of contention and Mehta, given his form, looks set to emerge the champion.

In the women’s billiards, Akanksha Singh got past Sanjana 2-0 while Varsha Sanjeev beat Mariam Agnesh 2-0. For Keerath Bhandaal, the 2-0 win over Indira Goud was as sweet as Meenal Thakur recording a 2-1 victory against Neeta Kothari.