Vinay Swaminathan and Sumer Mago, both from Mumbai carved out comfortable victories in their respective ‘6-Red’ semi-final matches of the Malabar Hill Club State Ranking Snooker Tournament 2024, played at the MHC billiards hall on Tuesday.
Swaminathan dished out a stellar performance and with clever tactical play halted Pune cueist Suraj Rathi’s fine run in the competition. The Bombay Gymkhana player Swaminathan went for his shots and sidelined the Pune challenger Rathi registering a 6-4 (7-64, 38-2, 33-25, 38-0, 27-37, 31-39, 57-6, 20-28, 42-22, and 54-4) win in the best of-11-frame encounter.
In all-Mumbai second semi-final, young talent Sumer Mago rose to the challenge against Abhishek Bajaj struggled a bit and was unable to produce his best, which proved costly. The Khar Gymkhana youngster Sumer grabbed his chances and struck the balls well and potted quite consistently to outshine his Bombay Gymkhana rival Bajaj by romping to a fluent 6-4 (34-29, 46-0, 2-49, 23-57, 40-1, 44-1, 5-31, 17-37, 28-18, and 37-3) victory. Sumer’s best effort was a break of 46 in the second frame and he will meet Swaminathan in the final.
Results – 6-Red snooker (semi-finals): Vinay Swaminathan (Mumabi) beat Suraj Rathi (Pune) 6-4 (7-64, 38-2, 33-25, 38-0, 27-37, 31-39, 57-6, 20-28, 42-22, 54-4);
Sumer Mago (Mumbai) beat Abhishek Bajaj (Mumbai) 6-4 (34-29, 46(46)-0, 2-49, 23-57, 40-1, 44-1, 5-31, 17-37, 28-18, 37-3).