Sonic flourish at CCI

But the defending champion did not display the same form he had exhibited earlier in the tournament as he missed some easy shots, which otherwise would have been a cakewalk for him.

Rao played brilliantly in the opening two frames, bagging the first one with two useful breaks of 32 and 48. And though he looked set to take the match to the wire at that stage, especially with that come-from-behind semi-final win over England’s Roxton Chapman to his credit, he suddenly fizzled out as the match progressed. Multani did well to capitalise on his opponent’s blunders and this paved the way for an easier route to the title.

Rao, known for his aggression, tried to force the pace, but committed too many errors in the process.

He surprisingly missed sitters which could have brought him back into the game.

Multani is known to swallow frames with significant breaks and he made the best of the opportunities offered to him by Rao’s poor potting and positioning.

Multani’s composure and control proved to be the deciding factors but he made sure he accomplished the hat-trick by relying on his resources.

Multani received Rs 45,000 for his victory, while Rao had to be content with Rs 23,000. Billiards champion Geet Sethi won Rs 5,000 for the highest break of the tournament.

RESULT (final): Sonic Multani beat Siddarth Rao (6-2) 29-80 (Sonic 29, Rao 32, 48), 69-62 (Sonic 38, Rao 47), 86-17 (Sonic 59), 72-33 (Sonic 57), 109-8 (Sonic 57, 51), 22-59, 65-26 (Sonic 30), 119-4 (Sonic 46, 32, 41).

BIG WIN FOR ROYAL CATERERS: Royal Caterers stormed into the quarter-finals of the Mumbai District Football Association’s Maitra Cup tournament with an emphatic 5-0 victory over Vikhroli XI `A’ at the St Xavier’s ground, Parel today.

The winners, who led 2-0 at the breather found their goals through Nazreth D’Souza (two), Vincent Noronha, Santosh More and Hasmukh Baria (one each).