Aditya Mehta gave an abject lesson to Rajat Kaneja with a 4 – 0 verdict. Aditya has not lost even a single frame in this Nationals and won 17 frames in a row. He is peaking at the right time as he earned a slot in the last 16.

Today, he accounted for Rajat Kaneja 77-26, 99-7, 110-0 and 84-4 with splendid runs of 40, 95, 97 and 83 in 4 frames.

On the last 3 occasions Aditya could easily have amassed century runs but all the time broke on the yellow ball. His ability to chalk out massive breaks is a result of his relentless practice and match play in professional circuit. Today’s exhilarating displays by the sportsman will remain etched in the memory of those few people who thronged the venue.

In another match, S Shrikrishna lost to Devendra Joshi 70-37, 83-13, 13-71, 59-52, 44-94 and 77-7. The youngster had to bow to his experienced rival but that should not deter him a wee bit. He has a glorious future ahead of him and this defeat will stand him in good stead.

Sandeep Gulati went from strength to strength in beating Rafath Habib in an absolute thriller. With the score at 3 – 3 and Rafath leading on 28, Sandeep chalked out a masterly run of 55 to settle the issue beyond doubt.

Varun Kumar gave a mighty scare to Rupesh Shah 8-78, 57-73, 77-12, 60-19, 0-94, 65-52 and 41-49. Though Rupesh made 2 runs of 64 and 72 he unfortunately lost on the black ball in the decider.

In another match which went to the wire Anuj Uppal managed to beat Shivam Arora 62-23, 5-70, 55-64, 89-34, 56-23, 5-73 and 69-15.

S Dilip Kumar played cracking of a snooker when he defeated celebrated opponent Kamal Chawla 69-20, 123-4, 18-64, 56-63, 56-48 and 88-9. In the last frame he made a neat break of 72 to tame Kamal Chawla.

Nineteen year old Varsha Sanjeev claimed the junior billiards title with a 156-125 win over Keerat Bhandaal even though snooker happens to be her per event. “I want to win the senior national here,” said Varsha, who has nine national titles in junior sections. An engineering student, Varsha is being coached by Sanjay Sawant after having learnt the initial lessons from M. G. Jayaram and S. jairaj, both former players of repute.