Yasin Merchant of the Khar Gymkhana and Mukund Bharadia of the Cricket Club of India Wednesday breezed into the snooker finalof the BSAM Maharashtra State Senior Snooker & Billiards Selection (leg-2) Championship here.
In the semi-final, Merchant,a former two-time Asian snooker champion, potted steadily and fluently to outplay Anand Raghuvanshi of the Hindu Gymkhana 4-0 (55-46, 68-59, 78-9 and 69-37 to take his place in the summit round.
Bharadia alsoenjoyed a good run of the balls and breezed past Shivam Arora of the Khar Gymkhana by a 4-1 margin in the other semi-final.
He quickly won the first three frames totake a 3-0 lead, but lost the fourth, before winning the fifth to complete a 87-53, 75-55, 64-33, 56-78 and 66-1 win.
Earlier, CCI's Sparsh Pherwanis fantastic winning streak came to a grinding halt as he succumbed to the crafty play of Yasin Merchant, who clinched an authoritative 4-1 win in a quarter-final encounter.
Results: Semi-finals:Yasin Merchant (Khar Gymkhana) beat Anand Raghuvanshi (Hindu Gymkhana) 4-0 (55-46, 68-59, 78(38,39)-9, 69-37); Mukund Bharadia (CCI) beat Shivam Arora (Khar Gymkhana) 4-1 (87-53, 75-55, 64-33, 56(37)-78(40), 66(35)-1.
Quarter-finals:Yasin Merchant (Khar Gymkhana) beat Sparsh Pherwani (CCI) 4-1 (60-33, 52(41)-12, 18-60(41), 71(47)-14, 83(53)-14); Shivam Arora (Khar Gymkhana) beat Krieshh Gurbaxani (Khar Gymkhana) 4-0 (80(51)-22, 64-49, 87(46)-04, 68(37)-35); Mukund Bharadia (CCI) beat Mayank Bhavsar (KVSC) 4-1 (24-63, 67-20, 62(30)-32, 62-30, 57-20); Anand Raghuvanshi (Hindu Gymkhana) beat Nikhil Ootam (CCI) 4-3 (58-17, 54(33)-63(35), 24-71, 69(61)-12, 21-60, 70-17, 63-30).