Merchant stretched

March 26: Snooker ace Yasin Merchant was taken the distance by Raju Adani in the quarter-final of the Anthony D8217;Cruz Open Handicap Snooker tournament 1998 sponsored by TBZ Jhaveri Bazar and Bharat Petroleum at the Catholic Gymkhana today.

Merchant made a disastrous start losing the first frame 33-66 but with breaks of 66 and 58 went ahead 2-1. Adnani took the match into the decider winning the fourth frame. A fine break of 54 however sealed all chances of a major upset.

In the other quarter-final encounter, Farhad Tengra playing with a handicap of 40 had faced few problems in showing Lal Daswani 50 the door. Tengra won 104-94, 102-86.

Shyam Kamdar 50 faces Ramesh Sadrangani 30 while Dhruv Sitwalla 35 takes on Nishant Dossa 30 in the other-two quarter-finals to be played tomorrow.

RESULTS

Yasin Merchant -10 handicap bt Raju Adani 25 33-66, 84-49, 86-60, 49-59, 79-36; Farhad Tengra 40 bt Lal Daswani 50 104-94, 102-86.