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Shekhar Surve rallied from a substantial deficit to shock Aditya Agrawal in the elite round robin, in the SPG-Park Club Open Billiards Handicap Tournament on Tuesday.
Trailing 136-180 against the in-form Agrawal of P.J. Hindu Gymkhana in the race-to-250 contest, Surve of Shivaji Park Gymkhana relied on experience to fire breaks of 57, 27 and an unfinished 36 to snatch an exciting 250-186 win in Group F.
Agrawal, playing with a -300 handicap, got off to a good start, aided by breaks of 50, 38 and 28 that kept him ahead and well in control. But Surve, playing with a -70 handicap, changed the script brilliantly with the crucial half century break and the 36 in the end that proved decisive.
In other upsets, Hasan Badami of CCI stunned 2011 champion Rishabh Kumar of Bombay Gymkhana 250-225 in Group B, while Kabil Badami of Bombay Gymkhana prevailed over Mahesh Jagdale of Elphinstone Cricket Club 250-140 in Group D.
V. ‘Raja’ Subramanian of Matunga Gymkhana kicked off his campaign in Group G with a brilliant break of 100 en route to a 250-161 win over last year’s runner-up Rohan Jambusaria of Mandpeshwar Civic Federation, Borivali who fired an unfinished break of 91 in the round of 32.
Hitesh Kotwani, Chandu Kansodaria, Deependra Pinkyar, Ronnie Daruwalla, and Sunil Jain qualified for the round robin, while Jatinder Dawer of NSCI was the significant loser who went down to Jain.
Two players from each group in the round robin main draw will qualify for the knock out pre-quarter-finals that kicks off the final phase.
Results: Elite Round Robin: Group B: Hasan Badami (-70, CCI) bt Rishabh Kumar (-80, Bombay Gym) 250-225.
Group D: Kabil Badami (-20, Bombay Gym) bt Mahesh Jagdale (-275, Elphinstone CC) 250-140.
Group F: Shekhar Surve (-70, SPG) bt Aditya Agrawal (-300, PJ Hindu Gym) 250-186.
Group G: V. ‘Raja’ Subramanian (-300, Matunga Gym) bt Rohan Jambusaria (-60, MCF) 250(100)-161.
Round of 32: Hitesh Kotwani (-50, CCI) bt Vishal Gehani (-40, Park Club) 200-135; Chandu Kansodaria (-60, MCF) bt Joe Thomas (+10) 200-160; Kabil Badami (scr, Bombay Gym) bt Nikhil Ghadge (-50, Matunga Gym) 200-176; Deependra Pinkyar (scr, SPG) bt Vishal Madan (-160, Chembur Gym) 200-128; Ronnie Daruwalla (-25, PJ Hindu Gym) bt Carl Serrao (-15, Dadar Club) 200-176; Sunil Jain (-10, Elphinstone CC) bt Jatinder Dawer (-50, NSCI) 200-149.
