Chawla shines as Indian cueists start with mixed results in Colombo

Kamal Chawla starred on Day 1 of the Asian 6-Red Snooker Championship with a dominant win, while Paras Gupta and Pushpender Singh experienced a mix of victories and close losses in Colombo

Hyderabad: The Indian cueists had a mixed bag on the opening day of the ACBS Asian 6-Red Snooker Championship in Colombo on Sunday.

Kamal Chawla, the reigning IBSF World 6-Red snooker champion, was the most impressive of the three Indians in the fray, scoring a lopsided 4-1 win over Wai Ip Lam of Macao, China, in Group ‘C’.

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National champion Paras Gupta prevailed 4-3 over Mohamed Mubeen of Sri Lanka on the final black ball in a Group ‘D’ match.

Pushpender Singh, who had a busy day at the office, suffered a hiccup in his second match, going down 3-4 to Chi Kin Chan of Macao, China. In the morning, Pushpender had outplayed Ziaur Rahman Azad of Bangladesh 4-1 in Group ‘A’.

The day, however, belonged to Chawla, who was on a roll barring an error in the fourth frame of the best-of-seven-frame match. After getting his eye in, the 45-year-old Bhopal cueist rifled in a brilliant 66 clearance in the second frame.

He followed it up with a sizzling 67 clearance to take a vice-like grip over the proceedings. An error while going for a long red pot gave his rival an opening. Lam made a crucial break of 40 to pull one back. But before much damage could be done, Chawla closed out the match in the next frame to begin his campaign to annex the continental title in splendid fashion.

Elsewhere, Pushpender, despite not coming up with big breaks, made useful contributions to put it across Rahman. A break of 36 in the fifth frame was the highlight of the match.

However, the national runner-up let slip a 3-2 advantage and went down to Chan in a scrappy encounter in the evening.

Results
Group A:
Pushpender Singh (Ind) bt Ziaur Rahman Azad (Ban) 4-1 (49-23, 40-16, 1-40, 47-33, 56 (36) -0);
Chi Kin Chan (Macao, Chn) bt Pushpender 4-3 (1-7, 0-5, 6-0, 49 (40) -19, 14-61 (39), 42-31, 48-6).

Group C:
Kamal Chawla (Ind) bt Wai Ip Lam (Macao, Chn) 4-1 (42-5, 80 (66) -0, 67 (67) -0, 0-44 (40), 49-7).

Group D:
Paras Gupta (Ind) bt Mohamed Mubeen (SL) 4-3 (20-52, 42 (37) -5, 47-17, 46-34, 25-36, 13-36, 28-25).