World 6-red snooker: Mehta does a Houdini act

New Indian Express

6 days ago

Manama (Bahrain): Down and out for the count against Pakistan's Ahsan Ramzan, second-seeded Aditya Mehta staged a Houdini act to keep his title hopes alive at the IBSF World 6-Red Snooker Championships here on Wednesday.
The seasoned campaigner, down 2-3 in the best-of-seven frame pre-quarters, kept his rival at bay with solid safety play to draw level at 3-3 and then made a splendid 71 clearance for a brilliant come-from-behind victory.
The 4-3 verdict helped Mehta, a former World Games gold medallist, set up a quarterfinal meeting against fellow Indian Manan Chandra, who thwarted a spirited challenge from Qatar's Ahmed Saif.
Chandra, who overcame Saudi Arabia's Omar Alajlani in the round of 32, jumped to a quick 3-0 lead. But lapses in concentration allowed Saif, who had overcome another Indian, Brijesh Damani, in the previous round, to stage a fightback. But before much damage could be done, the Indian upped his game a notch to come away a deserving 4-2 winner.
Reigning champion Kamal Chawla, however, blew away a 3-2 advantage and bowed out in a round of 32 match against Fung Kwok Wai. The Hong Kong China cueist came up with two brilliant clearances – 64 and 72 – in the final two frames to dethrone the Indian.
Paras Gupta, the National champion, and Pankaj Advani were the other two Indians to make the last-eight stage. While Gupta downed China's Pan Yiming 4-1, Advani defeated Poland's Tomasz Skalski 4-2.