Easy for Ootam, Fitter in senior state selection tourney

Mumbai, Nov 22 (UNI) Fancied Kaizad Fitter and Nikhil Ootam sailed into the pre-quarter-finals following impressive wins in the senior snooker, in the Maharashtra State Selection 2007 Billiards and Snooker Tournament at the Matunga Gymkhana here today.

In best-of-five frames second round matches, Bombay Gymkhana's Fitter beat Divesh Gangwani 72-46, 68-31, 61-21, while Ootam of CCI overcame Rishabh Kumar 59-27, 62-25, 55-31.

India star Aditya Mehta of Chembur Gymkhana joined Fitter and Ootam in the last 16 following another fluent 3-0 win over Kalpesh Mevada.

In thrilling first round ties, Jaideep Deshpande beat Rajiv Singhi 3-2, Park Club's Sanjeev Bijlani rallied to beat Akhil Patel by the same margin after trailing 1-2 and Akash Padalikar overcame Sandeep Vengurlekar 3-2, after enjoying a 2-0 advantage.

Results: Sr Snooker (2nd Rd): Aditya Hule bt R Jham 55-41, 48-12, 64-22; Aditya Mehta bt Kalpesh Mevada 79-9, 68-21, 68-31; Shailesh Rao bt Naman Agarwal 60-35, 49-40, 53-25; Kaizad Fitter bt Divesh Gangwani 72-46, 68-31, 61-21; Nikhil Ootam bt Rishabh Kumar 59-27, 62-25, 55-31.

1st Rd: Nishant Dossa bt Percy Patel 49-30, 61-16, 59-53; Jaideep Deshpande bt Rajiv Singhi 64-25, 42-53, 51-29, 40-51, 93-65; Sanjeev Bijlani bt Akhil Patel 85-22, 25-61, 33-60, 54-52, 37-32; Akash Padalikar bt Sandeep Vengurlekar 69-16, 57-45, 40-45, 53-60, 53-14; Chandresh Shah bt Arjun Parmar 44-52, 56-11, 56-23, 58-14.

UNI