Lucky on top of the table
After 15 days of intense matches, Hyderabad’s Lucky Vatnani romped home to win the Telangana Open Snooker Championship that was contested by 214 cueists from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and South Central Railway.
Lucky wrecked Rajiv Inuganti of Kakinada 6-2 (67-15, 70-57, 79-72, 74-47, 884, 49-50, 79-21, 61-4) in the best of 11 frames final. Lucky conquered the first four frames to take the pole position but Rajiv took up the challenge and won the fifth and sixth frames at 84-8 and 50-49 respectively. However, Rajiv couldn’t maintain the winning run as the Hyderabad cueist upped the ante and took the next two frames by storm.
Lucky’s early start put the heat right on Rajiv and dented his confidence. The attacking approach by Lucky worked out well in the end.
Earlier in the semifinal, Rajiv punched over his weight as he came from behind to defeat Pandurangaiah 5-3 — 4264, 25-44, 61-23, 69-45, 11-87, 62-50, 61-45, 67-64.
In the other semi, Lucky sailed past Himanshu Jain 5-2 — 76-25, 15-63, 53-25, 5604, 29-54, 85-08, 55-15.
Lucky was dominant from start to finish as he won the first frame with ease. Himanshu won the second frame. The third and fourth frames were taken by Lucky while Himanshu won the fifth. Then, Lucky brought out his ‘A’ game to blow his opponent off the table with thumping wins in the sixth and seventh frames to seal the deal.
“This (the title win) has come at a good time, with the Cue Slam starting the day after. I would say the organisers have done very well with the promotion part and snooker as a sport is spreading now,” said Lucky, who took his trophy count to over 25.
“The latest title sure makes me feel good. There was pressure on me to perform and I think I did a decent job. This was oneof-a-kind tournament and I can definitely see some changes in the growth of the game,” he added.