Sourav Kothari’s aggressive potting and precise touches helped him register a 4-2 victory over Rafath Habib in a best-of-seven frames pre-quarterfinals match of the Kences Constructions-ASCA international snooker tournament on Thursday.
Listed No. 1 after re-seeding at the end of the league phase, Habib had plenty of catching up to do right from the start. Although Kothari didn’t rack up massive breaks, he was in control for the most part.
He raced away with the first two frames before Habib halted his progress with a win in the third. While Kothari managed a narrow victory in the fourth frame, his opponent struck back in the very next frame. However, Kothari unleashed a dominant showing in the sixth frame and prevailed over the former Asian Games gold-medallist.
In another match, Kamal Chawla rallied from a frame down (1-95) to beat Manan Chandra 4-1. Aditya Mehta, Laxman Rawat, and Andy Lee also made it to the quarterfinals following comprehensive wins.
The results (pre-quarterfinals, best-of-seven frames): Sourav Kothari (India) bt Rafath Habib (India) 4-2 (69-14, 57-53, 13-82, 61-53, 22-69, 67-28), Andy Lee (Hong Kong) bt R. Yotharuck (Thailand) 4-1 (57-22, 9-63, 70-8, 94-18, 70-20), Aditya Mehta (India) bt Divya Sharma (India) 4-0 (60-49, 72-50, 101-8, 128(76)-0), Noppon Saengkham (Thailand) bt Rupesh Shah (India) 4-3 (63-60, 113(59,54)-8, 43-79, 54-79, 65-49, 0-93(63), 69-59), Laxman Rawat (India) bt Shabaaz Khan (India) 4- 0 (60-36, 79-42, 53-43, 80-27), Kamal Chawla (India) bt Manan Chandra (India) 4-1 (1-95, 68-59, 82-21, 83-22, 70-56).
