Business as usual for Merchant

"It feels wonderful to win this title especially after coming so close and missing it once," said Merchant who had lost to Sonic Multani in the snooker final two years ago.

The match seemed to be running towards an early end as Merchant bulldozed his way through. In the first frame, Merchant needed only three visits to the table to take a 1-0 lead. Two breaks of 34, preceded by a six, saw him take the first frame 74-45.

Shandilya never looked in the game as he laboured around for breaks. He was guilty of missing many easy ones too. "Someone has to lose and someone has to win. And today it was Yasin’s day,"said a disappointed Shandilya.

The day’s highest break of 95 came in the fourth frame and no prizes for guessing who it was. Shandilya remained a spectator as Merchant went about the table in robotic accuracy. His only expression, a wry smile, came as he missed the century break going for the black.

With Merchant leading 5-0, winning the next frame could well have decided the outcome of the match. But that was not to be as suddenly Merchant’s fireworks ended. In the next three frames, his play was quite contrary to what Merchant had played throughout the tournament.

"Something went wrong. Lack of concentration or maybe I was just too eager to finish the set," said Merchant. And that his opponent took the next three frames was due to an erroneous Merchant rather than a Shandilya fightback.

After the dismal three frames, Merchant regained his poise as quickly as he had lost it to take the tenth frame and win the elusive float glass trophy.

Shandilya settled for the runner’s-up cheque of Rs23,000.

While today’s match felt like a breeze, Merchant put his league match encounter with D Lily as the toughest hurdle. "I had already qualified for the quarter and was not under pressure going into the match. But suddenly Lily started playing well and it was more of a challenge to beat him," said the bespectacled cueist.

RESULTS

(FINAL)

Yasin Merchant bt Ashok Shandilya 6-3 (74-45, 71-17, 40-10, 80-24, 99-0, 12-67, 34-58, 49-55, 64-31.

PATH TO FINAL

League: Bt Varun Taneja 4-1; Bt Amit Khansaheb 4-0; Bt Geet Sethi 4-2; bt D Lily 4-3; Quarter-final: Bt Devendra Joshi 5-1; Semi-final: Bt Devendra Joshi 5-2.