CCI Snooker Classic 2023National Champion Chawla, Pherwani Make Winning StartsMumbai

National snooker champion Kamal Chawla of Railways and runner-up Sparsh Pherwani of Maharashtra launched their campaigns on a winning note, as they comfortably won their respective round of 64 matches of the Cricket Club of India (CCI)-organised Rs 12.1 lakh prize-money CCI Snooker Classic 2023 here on Tuesday.
Indian No. 1 Chawla potted steadily to brush aside the challenge from Delhi's Sandeep Gulati marching to a 4-2 (78-12, 53-11, 37-84, 40-66, 65-39, and 53-29) victory in the best-of-7-frames encounter played at the CCI's Sir Wilson Jones billiards hall.
Meanwhile, the Mumbai-based India No. 2, Pherwani was in good nick and compiled three half-century breaks as he sent E. Pandurangaiah of Railways crashing out by racing to a 4-0 (80-11, 94-21, 71-23, and 73-0) win.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra state No. 1 snooker player Hasan Badami showed good touch and was in control as he strolled past Uttar Pradesh's Paras Gupta clinching a 4-2 (64-42, 58-78, 51-76, 81-51, 65-18, and 62-35) victory. Badami will take on Pherwani in the next round.
Mumbai's Ishpreet Singh Chadha, the India No. 3, was also striking the ball well and rolled in three half-century breaks — 65 in the first frame, 81 in the third and 59 in the fifth — to overcome Dilip Kumar of Tamil Nadu for a convincing 4-2 (100-38, 18-61, 81-1, 58-65, 100-1, and 64-49) victory to join his city-mate Pherwani in the last 32.
Alfie Lee from England settled down quickly and without much opposition outplayed Ketan Chawla cruising to a 4-0 (71-6, 73-66, 72-13, and 78-65) win.