Fourth seed Manan Chandra of Delhi and unseeded Rupesh Shah of Gujarat will clash in the final of the Rs 400,000 CCI men's and women's invitation snooker tournament in Mumbai on Wednesday.
In the semi-finals on Tuesday, Shah shocked former Asian Games double gold medallist Ashok Shandilya of Railways 5-4 while Chandra, who had accounted for third seed and former Asian champion Yasin Merchant 5-4 in the quarter-finals yesterday, upset current National champion and second seed Pankaj Advani of Karnataka 5-3.
The Delhi lad played magnificiently and put the composed and confident Advani under tremendous pressure with some well-calculated putting. Chandra dropped the first frame 9-98 but came back strongly to win the next at 80-51.
Though he again dropped the next frame, 43-57, he came up with a timely break of 51 to win the fourth frame at 87-4. The turning point of the match came when Chandra took the next two frames (63-35 and 87-50) in pretty quick time.
Chandra dropped the seventh frame 8-82, after Advani, who had drubbed local cuiest Devendra Joshi 5-0 in the quarter-finals yesterday, came up with a break of 78.
The Delhi lad played some exotic shots in the eighth frame after the Karnataka cuiest went totally on the defensive before Chandra managed to win 48-13.
Results (semi-finals): Rupesh Shah (Guj) bt Ashok Shandilya (Rlys) 5-4 (95-16, 45-58, 69-51, 34-73, 69-33, 68-15, 46-57, 66-74, 56-1); Manan Chandra (Del) bt Pankaj Advani (Knt) 5-3 (9-98, 80-51, 43-57, 87-4, 63-35, 87-50, 8-82, 48-13).
