Date:12/12/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/12/12/stories/2007121262572100.htm

Sport

Asim stuns Devendra Joshi; Malkeet Singh surprises Vazirani

V.V. Subrahmanyam

HYDERABAD: Md. Asim of Railways continued his impressive form as he shocked former National champion Devendra Joshi (PSPB) 410-254 in the senior billiards league of the Seaway Group-sponsored National billiards and snooker championship for seniors, juniors, sub-juniors and women here on Monday.

Asim was very consistent with half-century breaks, while the former champion could notch up only one break of 79.

In another major upset, Malkeet Singh of Uttar Pradesh shocked former National champion Raunak Vazirani of Gujarat in the morning session with a 44-37, 57-64, 52-27 victory.

Cruising along

In women’s snooker, big guns Anuja Chandra, Chitra Magimairaj and Uma Devi cruised into the last 16 stage which will commence on Tuesday.

The results:

Women’s snooker (best-of-three frames): Meenal Thakur bt Suniti Damani 51-28, 60-40; Sangeetha bt Aakanksha Singh 58-25, 67-11; M. Chitra bt Shreya Kothari 56-20, 59-17.

Vidya Pillai bt Shivani Agarwal 86-5, 76-25; Anuja Chandra bt Renu Bharkatiya 82-49, 79-35; Uma Devi bt Neeta Kothari 57-19, 67-36; Neena Praveen bt Neeta Sanghvi 53-31, 57-27.

Sub-juniors’ snooker: Rovin d’Souza bt Amit Bhushan 56-28, 74-40; D. Kothari bt Samarjeet 61-34, 63-50; Shoaib Khan bt Rahul Budhia 47-34, 82-8; Mundir Sherazi bt Reza Merchant 71-27, 61-18.

Seniors’ billiards (90-minute format): League: Geet Sethi bt Siddartha Parikh 583-268; Pankaj Advani bt Raghav Singh 812-259; Adtiya Agarwal bt Kunal Agarwal 435-219; Kamal Chawla bt Somayajulu 550-244; Arif Akthar w\o Chetan Chobra.

S. Shankar Rao bt Sandeep Gulati 423-357; Md. Asim bt Devendra Joshi 410-254; Durga Prasad w\o Raunak Vazirani; Ahsan-ul-Haq bt Girish 550-271.

Arvind Savur bt Nishadh 375-275; Shakeel Ahmed bt Aman Goyal 491-91; Sourav Kothari bt Simhachalam 427-274.

Rupesh Shah bt Chandresh Shah 458-205; Brijesh Damani bt Arun Agarwal 340-275.

Dhruv Sitwala bt Aditya Mehta 504-235; Anish Parikh bt Pushpinder Singh 421-296; S. Mumtaz Ali bt P.G. Benny 422-326; Rafat Habib bt M.S. Reddy 346-270.