Manan Chandra and Kamal Chawla beat Aditya Mehta and Pushpinder Singh respectively to reach the finals of the National 6-Red Snooker Championship at the Bengal Rowing Club here on Tuesday.
Aditya Mehta was left ruing the lost chances.
Reflecting on the semi-final, Mehta said: "Manan played the long shots perfectly which I couldn't. In 6-Reds, nobody is the favourite. The margin for error is almost non-existent. And once somebody is on the roll, it is very difficult to claw back."
The game ended with the scoreline reading 6-4 (48-09, 7-77, 1-39, 46-17, 61-0, 44-31, 0-52, 16-46, 38-0, 46-01).
Both matches drew a full house as Chandra, a former national champion, was up against Mehta and Chawla, former Asian 6-Red Snooker semifinalist, was up against Pushpinder.
Chief national coach Manoj Kothari, commenting on the Chandra-Mehta showdown, said: "Manan played better today and showed some excellent long potting even from semi-difficult positions which Aditya could not do. Manan was more consistent and wrapped up the frames effortlessly. Aditya missed some chances and never really manage to put Manan under pressure."
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In the women's segment, Amee Kamani set up a final clash against Vidya Pillai. Amee beat Chitra M. 4-2 with frame scores of 22-30, 33-22, 46-11, 15-35, 39-06, 35-19 while Vidya beat Neena Praveen 4-1 (8-43, 30-04, 33-04, 34-17, 31-15).
Commenting on the Women's finalists, Kothari said: "Amee has been having a great run for the past 12 months after picking up last year's snooker crown.
"Vidya, on the other hand, is a seasoned player. The format of 6-Reds is such that there are no clear favourites. I am hoping to see some scintillating 6-Red snooker tomorrow in both the men's and women's finals."