Yogesh puts it across Anupama; Keerthana routs Sachdev

India’s Yogesh Kumar came up with a gritty effort to show reigning women’s IBSF World snooker champion Anupama Ramachandran the door in the knockout round of the Joy Heyball International Open in Chandigarh on Thursday.

Yogesh, a three-time state snooker champion from Karnataka, scored a comfortable 7-3 win over the bespectacled pro in the round of 64 match. Next up for the 40-year-old Davangere cueist, who was largely untroubled in the ‘Race to 7’ clash, is the young Digvijay Kadian, who defeated Sukaran Singh 7-3.

Joining Yogesh in the round of 32 was Kolar girl Keerthana Pandian, the bronze medallist at the IBSF World Championships last month. The 23-year-old blanked Tathya Sachdev 7-0 to set up a meeting with the formidable Laxman Rawat, who came through the losers’ bracket.

National runner-up Kamal Chawla, who too came through the losers’ bracket, advanced to the next round with a workmanlike 7-2 win over Bharat Sharma.

Earlier, Britain’s world No. 1 Jack Whelan outclassed Harshit Sharma 7-1 without breaking a sweat.

Select results (Round of 64, Indians unless mentioned): Mohd El Molla (Egy) bt Sumit Talwar 5-5 (Shootout); Jack Whelan (GBR) bt Harshit Sharma 7-1; Digvijay Kadian bt Sukaran Singh 7-3; Pushpender Singh bt Abhijeet Ranade 7-2; Sina Valizdeh (Irn) bt Manjot Singh 7-2; Kamal Chawla bt Bharat Sharma 7-2; Keerthana Pandian bt Tathya Sachdev 7-0; Laxman Rawat bt Ashish Kumar 7-1; Vidit Gawri bt R Santosh 7-5; Yogesh Kumar bt Anupama Ramachandran 7-3; Md Faisal Khan bt Manan Chandra 7-5.