Aditya Metha failed to maintain his professional status last season but back in his home country he is proving to be as dominant as ever as he defeated Yasin Merchant 6-2 in the final of the Madras Gymkhana Club’s All-India invitational snooker tournament on Friday.
The 23 year old who has been coached by our own PJ Nolan for the last few years defeated the 42 year old two time Asain champion to take the Rs.1.4 lakh first prize (Just over €2,000) , the largest prize money in Indian snooker.
Merchant was quoted after the final as saying “Every shot that he played today was just remarkable and I am not disappointed as I lost to a better player”
The match kicked off with Merchant taking the first frame until Metha rattled off four frames in a row with the help of a superb 111 in the fourth frame. A break of 58 after the break gave Merchant the sixth frame to reduce the deficit and despite going 52-0 up in the next managed to lose the frame to fall 5-2 behind.
Breaks of 43 and 21 gave Metha the final frame and the title which was presented by former Davis Cup captain Ramesh Krishnan who was the cheif guest for the tournament. MS Arun of Bangalore took home €300 for the highest break (137) of the tournament while the losing semi-finalists, Sourav Kothari and Manan Chandra received just around €400 apiece
