Pune cueists enjoyed a successful and rewarding day with Gaurav Deshmukh and talented youngster Aarav Sancheti winning their concluding Group-L league matches and qualifying for the knockout round.

Deshmukh recorded his third successive win in the group defeating Mumbai’s Aakash Ramteke 3-0 (68-38, 96-78, and 58-32) in the best-of-5-frame ‘15-Red’ snooker round-robin match of the Malabar Hill Club State Ranking Snooker Tournament 2024, played at the MHC billiards hall on Sunday.

On the side table, Sancheti also produced a strong performance and outplayed Nagpur’s Anshul Tandekar posting a 3-0 (71(30)-24, 62-45, and 58-9) win. Deshmukh with three wins finished in pole position while Sancheti was placed second.

Meanwhile, Mumbai’s seasoned cueist Cherag Ramakrishnan showed glimpses of his past form and blanked Chetan Rajarwal of Marathwada marching to a 3-0 (60-51, 78-21, and 66-26) frame score win.

Putting up another solid performance, Zubair Sheikh of Nagpur easily defeated Mumbai’s Sunil Jain 3-1 (58-26, 59-51, 34-74, and 69(48)-14). Zubair and Cherag finished first and second in Group-K and advance to the knockout round.

Abhijeet Ranade from Pune was in top form and handed Abhishek Bajaj a 3-0 (75(44)-51, 62-36, and 71-29) defeat in a Group-I league match. Both, Ranade and Bajaj clinched the top two positions and progressed to the next phase of the tournament.

Results – 15-Red snooker round-robin league: Gaurav Deshmukh (Pune) beat Aakash Ramteke 3-0 (68-38, 96-78, 58-32);

Aarav Sancheti (Pune) beat Anshul Tandekar (Nagpur) 3-0 (71(30)-24, 62-45, 58-9);

Cherag Ramakrishnan beat Chetan Rajarwal (Marathwada) 3-0 (60-51, 78-21, 66-26);

Zubair Sheikh (Nagpur) beat Sunil Jain 3-1 (58-26, 59-51, 34-74, 69(48)-14);

Sumer Mago beat Rushabh Jain 3-0 (57-49, 76-32, 49-5);

Abhijeet Ranade (Pune) beat Abhishek Bajaj 3-0 (75(44)-51, 62-36, 71-29);

Rohit Rawat (Pune) beat Krishna Tohgaonkar (Thane) 3-2 (9-59, 60-52, 48-32, 39-63, 64-44);

Aditya Shandilya beat Anant Mehta 3-1 (83-17, 62-49, 54-61, 74-42).