Mumbai > Indian Oil's Brijesh Damani today won the Rs 12.25 lakh prize-money CCI All India Open Snooker Championship here after he defeated ONGC's Sourav Kothari by a stunning 7-1 margin in a one-sided best-of-13 frame final.
Damani went home richer by Rs two lakh and received the CCI Snooker Trophy, and a fine crystal trophy, while Kothari received Rs 1.30 lakh. Damani did not have to produce anything exceptional as Kothari was unable to find his rhythm. Damani played steadily and potted consistently.
He also boldly attempted some long and difficult shots and succeeded with those pots which played a big role in his victory. Kothari made a positive start and came up with two small efforts of 19 and 21 to lead 48-25, but missed a simple last red in the centre pocket.
Damani grabbed the chance as he potted the final red and followed it up with the brown before clearing the balls from the table to compile a run of 35 to snatch the first frame, which was the beginning of his charge to success. In the second frame, Damani rattled in efforts of 33 and 53 to close out the frame to take a 2-0 lead. The third frame was a virtually a cat and mouse affair as Kothari was more intent on safe play and in the process missed some sitters and also gave away several penalty points which helped Damani win the third to increase his lead to 3-0.
Damani trailed in the fourth but won the frame on the black to further stretch his lead and he continued his surge by coming from behind to pocket the fifth frame as well. Kothari raised hopes of a fight back as he managed a break of 43 to finally get on the scoreboard, winning the sixth frame just before the break.
However, on resumption, Damani won the next two frames to wrap up the match, winning at (57(break 35)-48, 86(33, 53)-6, 57-8, 55-51, 65-54, 5-79(43), 75-20, 72-2). "It's great to win. I am not surprised to have won so comfortably, sometimes it happens that your opponent has a bad day. Sourav is a formidable opponent, who has great qualities, but I decided to stick to my game and I think it was my consistent performance which helped me come through," Damani said.
The losing semi-finalists, Kamal Chawla and Aditya Mehta, both took home a purse of Rs 75,000 each. Results – final: Brijesh Damani (Indian Oil) bt Sourav Kothari (ONGC) 7-1 (57(35)-48, 86(53)-6, 57-8, 55-51, 65-54, 5-79(43), 75-20, 72-2).
