18 March 2013:
Rafath Habib wins North Zone RKG Snooker Masters
Former Asian
Games gold medalist, Rafath Habib survived a scare before
prevailing over Delhi's Sundeep Gulati in the final of the RKG
Snooker Masters North Zone Championship, here today. Both the
cueists were neck and neck till the eighth frame before
Chennai’s Habib broke away to take the decider 64-59 and win
the coveted championship at the Megapool Snooker Academy in
Dwarka.
In the
best-of-nine-frame final, Habib was stretched to the limit by
the former national 9-Ball Pool Champion, Gulati before the
veteran cueist once again established his dominance on the cue
sport circuit with a 5-4 win. Habib took home a cash prize of
Rs.36,000 (Rs.15000 as regular and an special incentive of
Rs.21000 from Sponsor) and, in the process, also qualified for
the RKG Snooker Masters 2013, India's biggest Pro-Am Snooker
tournament, to be held in Mumbai from May 6 to 13 in Mumbai.
Habib is joined
by Gulati, Punjab's Dharminder Lilly and the 2010 National
8-Ball Pool champion, Sumit Talwar (Chandigarh) as the four
qualifiers from the North Zone for the Mumbai tourney.
The four players
from the South Zone had already been decided for the Snooker
Masters and the conclusion of the North Zone rounds today gave
way to the East and West Zone qualifiers to be played later
this month.
Eight-time world
champion Pankaj Advani and Aditya Mehta will participate in
the tournament. They will be joined by 16 qualifiers from
across four venues in India -- Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and
Pune. The prize money is the biggest offered in India with the
winner's purse being Rs.500,000 Lakh.
In the summit
clash, Habib started off on a resounding note pocketing the
first frame in a jiffy. However, his joy was short-lived as
Delhi’s Gulati made a strong comeback winning the next two
frames. Trailing 1-2, Habib pulled out all the stops to secure
the next three frames, producing an hour of sublime quality
snooker. Potting the ball all around the table with consummate
ease, the Bussan Asian Games Doubles gold medalist in Snooker
was simply unstoppable. The score-lines of fourth, fifth and
sixth frames said at all – 79-01, 61-27 and 71-37.
Reduced to a mere
spectator, Gulati made a splendid comeback and reigned supreme
on the green baize by winning the next two frames. With scores
level at 4-4, both Habib and Gulati brought their vast
experience to the table and never let each other offer any
easy chances. With every shot making it count, Habib potted
the yellow ball, a difficult shot on the cushion, and then
made a superb clearance to settle the issue on the black ball.
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