Classic Chawla wins CCI snooker crown

India's No.2 cueist Kamal Chawla snapped Faisal Khan's winning run in the final hurdle to pocket the snooker title, in the Cricket Club of India (CCI) Classic Billiards and Snooker Tournament here today.
Asian Championship bronze medallist Chawla avenged his defeat at the Dadar Club-Matunga Gymkhana final against Faisal as he romped to a 7-4 victory in the best-of-13 frames championship round, after leading 4-0, that earned him the winner's prize of Rs. 1 lakh, while Faisal received Rs. 60,000.
Faisal, who shocked title favourite Aditya Mehta in the quarter-finals, ignored the huge and early deficit and initiated a brilliant comeback midway when he snatched three frames in a row to set the stage for a cliffhanger.

But a brilliant break of 73 in the crucial eighth frame gave the more experienced Chawla a 5-3 advantage.
The never-say-die Khan held on to narrow the margin to 4-5 that set the contest alight until Chawla fired a 44 in the 10th frame and wrapped up the following frame and match as Khan struggled to wriggle out of tight situations.
"After enjoying that big lead, I missed three safety shots that allowed Faisal to get back," explained Chawla. "He's a good player and capitalised on his chances whenever possible. But I stuck to my plan and played crucial balls well."

"I was never under pressure, but today the balls unfortunately did not roll in my favour," reasoned Khan. "I missed a sitter blue in the (crucial) eighth frame which I could have won. But Kamal played well and deserved to be the victor."

Earlier, Chawla and Khan registered contrasting semi-final wins. While Khan demolished Delhi based Pushpender Singh of Railways 5-0 in the best-of-nine frames contest, Chawla overcame Sourav Kothari of PSPB 5-3 in a tight second semi-final.
Chawla led 2-1 after dropping the opening frame that included a brilliant 89 break in the third frame in reply to Kothari's 76 in the first. He went ahead 3-2 but Kothari drew level to set the stage for a humdinger.

But Chawla capitalised on small but crucial leads in the seventh and eighth frames that left Kothari little room for recovery and a closer finish.
Results: Snooker: Final: Kamal Chawla (Rlys) bt Faisal Khan (Rlys) 98-36, 77-49, 72-16, 62-32, 39-68, 7-75(67), 44-75, 73(73)-1, 48-69, 70(44)-24, 57-19.