Nikhil Sangani sent shocking waves in the January Snooker Mug tournament when he sent packing veteran Raju Kanabar by 2-1frames in a quarter-final match at the Dar es Salaam Gymkhana Club (DGC) on Wednesday night.
In other Division A quarter-final matches, last year’s double champion Kalpesh Lavingia beat Manish Khattar 2-1, while Suman Mandalia beat John Rimmer 2-1.
The first semi-final encounter were set for late on Thursday in which Kalpesh was to face Suman, while Nikhil is pitted against Akil Akberali in the second semi-final today. Akberali is also last year’s double champion.
On Tuesday, Hussein Zavary maintained his winning form when he recorded a 2-0 victory over Rupesh Soni in a Division B match.
However, Zavary was forced to surrender his win because he was expected to return to South Africa yesterday to resume his studies.
He returned to a snooker competition over the weekend for the first time since he won the Division B title last May. Then he defeated veteran Kishore Ramanuj in 2-0 frames.
“Zavery won his match against Soni but he gave it to his opponent because he left the city yesterday for South Africa,” snooker captain Firoz Yusufali said.
Zavary’s father, Iqbal Zavery, also confirmed to this paper that his son flew back to South Africa for further studies at Cape Town University.
Soni, who won the March monthly mug title last year, will now have to think again if he has any desire to secure the title after several months setback.
Source Tanzania Daily News
