Menezes scores another impressive win
Joseph Menezes of Otters Club continued with his winning run of form and recorded another impressive win when he blanked Mithil Shinde of Thane 3-0 in a prequarter-final (best-of-5-frame) match of the BSAM Grassroot Snooker Challenge at the Garware Club House.
Menezes showed good touch and immediately settled down and quickly won the first frame. Although, he later encountered a bit of fight from Shinde, it did prevent him from going on to pocket the next two frames to wrap up the contest with a 55-16, 5443 and 43-33 frame scores.
Matunga Gymkhana’s seasoned cueist Percy Patel maintained the winning momentum as he managed to scrape past Garware Club House player Chirag Mehta by claiming a hard-fought 3-2 (43-58, 60-15, 7-64, 52-47, 60-17) victory.
Meanwhile, Vishal Gehani and Sanjiv Bijlani, both of Park Club registered contrasting pre-quarter-final victories. Gehani potted steadily to brush aside the challenge from Ranjeet Negi of Vashi winning straight frames 3-0 (65-55, 47-47, 65-41), while Bijlani recovered after losing the first frame to overcome Western Railway’s Shekhar Surve 3-1 (50-58, 5222, 57-24, 49-41).
Siddhesh Mulay and Omkar Gore, both from Chiplun also progressed to the quarter-finals. In an absorbing and well-contested last 16 game, Mulay managed to edge past Rajesh Mayavanshi of Malabar Hill Club coasting to a 32 (14-55, 52-84, 69-47, 51-31, 6427) win while Gore had a much relaxed time as he sidelined Devansh Jariwala of Garware Club House 3-1 (7951, 37-48, 51-10, 52-41).