Sumit Talwar cues to 15-canon break to down Joshi

New Delhi, July 30 (UNI) National pool champion Manan Chandra set the tone for the day by overhauling the highest break, but the record was twice toppled during the day as Sumit Talwar achieved a break of 15 canons to bring life into the National one-cushion carombole championship here.

Punjab cueist Sumit was up against seasoned Devendra Joshi, but he sustained himself with a more than average game per visit to take a commanding lead before winning 85-57 and stormed into the quarterfinals. His break of 15 came in the 57th visit as the two cueists dished out 142 points in the given timeframe, by far the maximum in this championship.

Earlier yesterday, Manan moved into the quarterfinals with a 77-38 win against Anil Sabhrawal. Manan seemed to be in a hurry as he overhauled the highest break of nine canons set by Kamal Chawla, by scoring 10. His record though stood for a few hours before Chawla regained the claim to the highest break with 11 canons.

The second-seeded Manan had six breaks of four canons before he dished out a 10 in the 57th visit. In his last visit, Manan scored five canons to close the match in less than 45 minutes, by far the shortest match in terms of time consumed.

Chawla meanwhile, continued his run with a nail-biting finish against billiards exponent, Dhruv Sitwala. In a match of equal chances, Chawla came up trumps thanks to his breaks of eight, nine and 11, which came in the 43rd visit.

Delhi's Ajay Rehani, younger brother of National pool coach, Mukesh, created the biggest upset of the championship by ousting Rafath Habib, the Busan Asian Games snooker doubles gold medallist.

UNI