Chandra gives Thukral no chance

By Our Sports Reporter

BANGALORE, MARCH 9. Manan Chandra was simply unstoppable on this day. The Delhi junior State champion was on a roll enroute to the semifinals of the inaugural National Pool championship at the KSBA hall here on Friday.

Manan was ruthless on statemate and fellow sparring partner Rishab Thukral winning the quarterfinals 9-3, a match in which Rishab was given litle or no opportunity. Rishab, the Delhi senior cham pion, did capitalise on the two openings that he was gifted with. But otherwise Manan was thorough and Rishab was left gaping at the sidelines. Manan did not go for anything extraordinary and just played to his potential, clearing the table when the opportunity rose.

On table one K. Ranjan, who had quelled the challenge of statemate Md. Arshad in the pre-quarterfinals at 8-3, upped his charge in the quarterfinals. And Delhi's Anuj Uppal was left floundering. Anuj, who until the quarterfinals had had a good outing in the championship, did manage to bridge the deficit from 3-7 to 5-7. But that was as far as he could go. Ranjan, who showed a flair for going for the combinations quite effectively from day one, played positively and won easily.

Ranjan now runs into Manan in the semifinals, while the other penultimate round will feature Mukesh Rehani of Delhi against Md Asim of West Bengal.

Mukesh, who came through the round robin the hard way, ended the challenge of veteran Arvind Savur in the round of 16 with a 8-6 verdict. In the quarterfinals, however, Mukesh was in irresistible form shutting out the aspirations of youngster Nitesh Vijayavargia of Andhra Pradesh winning 9-1.

Md Asim of West Bengal waited for his chances to silence S.A. Saleem 9-5.

The results: quarterfinals: K. Ranjan bt Anuj Uppal 9- 5; Manan Chandra bt Rishab Thukral 9-3; Md Asim bt S.A. Saleem 9- 5; Mukesh Rehani bt V. Nitesh 9-1.

Pre-quarterfinals: V. Nitesh bt Siddarth Parekh 8-5; Mukesh Rehani bt Arvind Savur 8-6; S.A. Saleem bt A. Haq 8-7; Md Asim bt Nadeem Ahmed 8-3; Anuj Uppal bt Neeraj Kumar 8-0; K. Ranjan bt Md arshad 8-3; Rishab Thukral bt B Bhaskar 8-3; Manan Chandra bt Devendra Joshi 8-5.

Round of 32: V. Nitesh (AP) bt V. Anand (Kar) 8-7; Siddarth Parekh (Mah) bt Ravi Shankar (AP) 8-2; Mukesh Rehai (Del) bt Shakeel Ahmed (WB) 8-5; Arvind Savur (Kar) bt S. Jairaj (Kar) 8- 5; S.A. Saleem (TN) bt Ashok Singh (Del) 8-4; A. Haq (Ori) bt Joginder Singh (HP) 8-5; Nadeem Ahmed (TN) bt Mahesh Jagdale (Mah) 8-2; Md Asim (WB) bt R. Logannathan (TN) 8-5; Neeraj Kumar (Bih) bt B.V.S. Murthy (Kar) 8-4; Anuj Uppal (Del) bt S.A. Faheem (TN) 8-3; Md Arshad (TN) bt K. D'Cruz (Bih) 8-5; K. Ranjan (TN) bt E. Ibrahim (AP) 8-7; Rishab Thukral (Del) bt Muddabir Ahmed (Kar) 8-5; B. BHaskar (Kar) bt K. Appa Rao (AP) 8- 2; Devendra Joshi (Mah) Sohail Jairaj (Kar) 8-4; Manan Chandra (Del) bt Sunil Sharma (Kar) 8-2.

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