National sub-junior boys’ snooker champion Abdul Saif (right) and runner-up Mayur Garg (left).
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Tamil Nadu’s Abdul Saif bagged the sub-junior boys’ snooker title at the 90th National billiards & snooker championships in the Nehru indoor stadium here on Friday.
Saif clinched a thrilling best-of-7 frames final 4-3 against Gujarat’s in-form Mayur Garg, who was gunning for a double after winning the sub-junior billiards title on Thursday.
After Garg rallied to level at 2-all, Saif comfortably took the fifth before Garg strongly came back to win the next. In the decider, Garg took an 18-point lead on the brown ball, but Saif managed to clear the table from brown to black ball to bag his maiden National title in style.
“It was a close match until the decider, and when Mayur missed brown it gave me an opportunity,” said the Chennai boy Saif.
The results (sub-junior boys): Snooker: Final: Abdul Saif (TN) bt Mayur Garg (Guj) 4-3 (56-55, 69-48, 38-70, 30-60, 54-40, 7-60, 64-61).
Semifinals: Mayur Garg (Guj) bt Laxmi Narayanan (TN) 3-1 (68-28, 85-43, 52-54, 84-1); Abdul Saif (TN) bt Jabez Naveen Kumar (TN) 3-2 (44-26, 47-19, 30-50, 60-70, 71-40).