Rupesh defeats Yasin to enter finals

Bangalore, Feb 1 (UNI) Ace cueist Rupesh Shah of Gujarat upset the applecart of twice Asian Champion Yasin Merchant of Maharashtra to make it to the finals of the 73rd Senior National Snooker Championship here today, with a hard fought 5-4 victory.

The nerve-wracking four-hour-thirty-minute duel saw the 33-year- old 1993 national billiards champion making it to the snooker final for the first time after a ding dong battle of fluctuating fortunes.

Rupesh started on a winning note, claiming the first frame with a comfortable 37-point margin at 73-36. But, Merchant won the next three 80-29, 64-14, 65-5. The Railway cueist clawed back to gain the next two at 62-52, 73-21 to level the score at three all.

The seventh frame saw a keen tussle between the two stalwarts and at one juncture Merchant, playing safe, led 48-35. But Rupesh salvaged the frame and took it at a razor edge margin of 53-52 to regain the lead.

The match took a crucial turn with Merchant winning the eighth frame by a huge margin of 31 (60-29). However, Rupesh had the last laugh, fighting back tenaciously to win the decider 65-58 and enter the finals.

Expressing happiness at entering the finals for the first time in snooker, Rupesh said ''it was a ding dong battle. In 2001, I had defeated Yasin in the quarters. The main thing was I broke his rhythm by taking advantage of his concern for safety and I succeded.

It was a tough match. However, after equalling 3-3 and going one up, I got the confidence of entering the final stage, but the decider was more tough since he was leading by 38 points. However, I could manage, again taking advantage of the safety aspect Yasin was focusing. Both of us had pressure.'' To a question, he said world champion Pankaj Advani would be a tough guy to play in the finals as he was good in all fields of the game. ''If I get Alok Kumar as opponent, I hope it will be easy.'' Yasin, who had showed the door to defending champion Manan Chandra in the quarterfinals yesterday, failed to overcome his weakness of concentrating on safety and paid dearly.

Result: (Semifinals) Rupesh Shah (Guj) bt Yasin Merchant (Mah) 5-4 (73-36, 29-80, 14-64, 52-65, 62-52, 73-21, 53-52, 29-60, 65-58).

UNI