Up-and-coming cueist Aditya Mehta shocked India No 1 Alok Kumar 3-2 in a thrilling Group 'A' match before storming into the quarter-finals in the inaugural Rs 250,000 Nahar Group-MIG All India Invitation Snooker Tournament, at the MIG Club, in Bandra, Mumbai, on Thursday.
Going into their concluding best-of-five frames match with two victories each to their credit, Mehta pulled off a sensational 76-34, 64-1, 14-74, 33-71, 92-2 win to top the group and push Kumar, who also qualified, to second place.
Mehta capped his winning streak with a break of 52 in the second frame as he surged to a surprise 2-0 lead, before Kumar snatched the third and fourth frames to force the decider. But Mehta came back and fired a decisive break of 67 in the final frame to clinch victory.
Joining Mehta and Kumar in the quarter-finals was Gujarat's Geet Sethi, who fashioned his third consecutive win in Group 'B'.
Resting on a two-win cushion, Sethi ignored the loss of the opening frame to beat Nagpur's Shravan Mohta 9-59, 65-44, 71-27, 77-30 in his concluding tie to top the group.
Mohta crashed to his third straight defeat, which left Railways' Kamal Chawla and Gujarat's Rupesh Shah to battle for the second spot in the group.
Yasin Merchant and Manan Chandra cruised to their second victories in Group 'C' and 'D' respectively, to virtually seal places in the quarter-final knock-out.
Sarang Shroff of Mumbai will join Chandra in his group.
Devendra Joshi of PSPB coasted to his first win from two matches to keep his hopes alive in Group 'C' after beating Karnataka's D. Rajkumar 58-45, 57-9, 84-27.
Results: (Pre-quarter-final league):
Group 'A': Aditya Mehta (Mumbai) bt Ashok Shandilya (Rlys) 52-28, 67-0, 43-66, 91(91)-0; Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Rishabh Pandya (Mumbai) 49-70, 86-20, 71-23, 62-58 (41); Aditya Mehta bt Alok Kumar 76-34, 64(52)-1, 14-74, 33-71, 92(67)-2.
Group 'B': Geet Sethi (Guj) bt Kamal Chawla (Rlys) 33-79(55), 85(48)-3, 15-77(45), 66-58, 83-69; Geet Sethi bt Rupesh Shah (Guj) 7-60(34), 63(37)-52, 73(37)-62(42), 72-61(45); Kamal Chawla bt Shravan Mohta (Nagpur) 63-28, 96-14, 77(67)-5; Geet Sethi bt Shravan Mohta 9-59, 65-44, 71-27, 77-30.
Group 'C': Yasin Merchant (Mumbai) bt Brijesh Damani (Kolkata) 77(39)-29, 21-112, 103(46)-23, 63-45; Devendra Joshi (PSPB) bt D. Rajkumar (Kar) 58-45, 57-9, 84-27.
Group 'D': Sarang Shroff (Mumbai) bt Sourav Kothari (PSPB) 78-41, 60-45, 54-27; Manan Chandra (PSPB) bt Sourav Kothari (PSPB) 93(40)-31, 56-60, 96-28, 82-1; Saran Shroff bt Gaurav Prabhu (Mumbai) 72-7, 119-1, 75-63.
