Lucknow: Playing brilliantly, Rajat Khaneja of Chandigarh ended the dream run of Andhra's I.V.Rajeev in four straight frames to enter the last 16 of the State Bank Indian National Six Red Snooker Championship being played at the Indoor TT Complex , Gomti Nagar, Lucknow on Monday.
Rajeev had been playing superbly in his earlier outings but Khaneja proved that when it matters, the victor is one who performs at the right time and he did so.
Varun Madan of Delhi spoilt the day for Amit Gupta of Uttar Pradesh in an exhibition of solid potting to win by 4-2 frames for an entry into the last 16.
Varun Kumar of Tamil Nadu was a bit too hot for Delhi's Vipin Sethi crushing him in straight frames by 4-0.
The Bengal Tiger, Sourav Kothari outplayed Sahil Nayyar of Punjab by 4-2 frames to move into the last 16. In a similar fashion K.S.Naveen Kumar beat Rafath Habib by 4-2 frames and entered the last 16 stage.
But the most interesting match of the afternoon session was between Mizoram's talented youngster Lalrina Renthelie and Haryana's Divya Sharma. The first six frames were tied at three frames a piece before Lalrina brought out his best forward to snatch victory by pocketing the seventh frame.
After the morning matches, by the day, the last 32 contestants were spotted after the packed audience had witnessed some individual brilliance in potting from IV Rajeev, Manish Jain, Kamal Chawla, Sumit Talwar, Manjot Singh, Shahbaz Adil Khan, SA Saleem, Kan Kan shamsi and Sourav Kothari to name a few players from among the 32 winners.
Manish Jain playing in a very positive manner won two matches defeating Michael Rebello of Karnataka by four frames to three in a tie which was poised till the end, followed it with another four three win. This time the player at the receiving end was Faisal Khan of Delhi. In this match too, Manish held his nerve better to emerge victoious.
Madhya Pradesh Star player, Kamal chawla was impressive in his two wins over Lalrina Renthelie of Mizoram and Malkeet singh of uttar Pradesh. Kamal was stretched to the full by Lalrina before he managed to wriggle out of a tight corner to win on the pink ball in the deciding seventh frame. Against Malkeet, Kamal appeared more reassured as he quelled the challenge of the National juniors snooker champion with a degree of comfort in the end by 4-2 frames.
Sumit talwar, the lanky Chandigarh cueist was once again in his elements as he trounced Gurdit singh in straight frames by 4-0 and then took Karnataka's Balaji Reddy in the same stride by another straight frames victory at 4-0.
Manjot singh of Punjab was another notable winner of the day as first he posted an easy 4-2 frames victory over Anuj bhargava of uttar Pradesh and then he edged out Avinash Gupta in a 4-3 frames tight finish. with the score tied at 3-3 Manjot raised his game by a notch to come out on top.