Aditya Mehta records fluent win; Rupesh Shah falters

Defending Champion Varun Madan and last year’s Runner-up Rahul Sachdev both lost their respective matches to Delhi’s Monu Choudhury and Maharashtra’s young cueist Ispreet Chadha.

Another veteran, PSPB’s Rupesh Shah, found himself staring at a possible exit from the tournament following two back-to-back defeats at the hands of Faisal Khan and Rafath Habib.

Showing fluent form, Aditya Mehta hardly gave any leeway to his opponent Shakil Ahmed of West Bengal, winning 4-0 with ease with the frame scores reading 51-16, 33-21, 53-12 and 61-0.

Manoj Kothari, Chief National Coach, said: “Aditya played with great focus and concentration since he does not usually play 6-Red but his fluency and class was unmatchable. His shots were admirable.”

Rupesh, who now has his back to the wall, will play against Anand Raghuvanshi of Maharashtra which may be termed a dead rubber. Shah started the day on a depressing note as he lost three consecutive frames at the hands of Faisal Khan in his first game of the day before making a comeback by winning the next two frames.

But Khan proved to a lucky customer as he conquered the last frame to win the match. In the next match, Rupesh staged a strong comeback against Rafath Habib by winning the first two frames but then lost concentration.

The day also saw Sourav Kothari and Brijesh Damani winning their respective matches comprehensively over Bharath Sisodia(MP) and Bengal’s Aamir Hussain.