Snooker: Sourav Kothari waltzes into final

Chennai, June 22 (IANS) Sourav Kothari from Kolkata pulled off a merited 5-1 win over Noppon Saengkham of Thailand to make a grand entry into the Kences Constructions-ASCA International Snooker tournament here Friday.

Sourav, son of former World billiards champion Manoj Kothari, played consistent snooker to outplay the fancied Thai star as the Indian put in breaks of 47 in the first, 55 (second), 60 and 57 (third), 65 (fourth), and 57 and 49( fifth) before closing the match on the back of 71.

Kothari awaits the winner of the second semifinal between Kamal Chawla and Hong Kong's Steven Chau.

Saengkham, who had upset fancied Aditya Mehta, the Indian champion, 4-3 in the quarter-finals, could not reproduce the form and appeareda spent force against Kothari who made the best of easy offering.

The results:

Semi-finals: Sourav Kothari bt Noppon Saengkham (Thailand) 5-1 (57-68, 93-31, 118-1, 95-16, 109-11, 77-7);

Quarter-finals: Saengkham bt Aditya Mehta 4-3; Kothari bt Andy Lee (Hong Kong) 4-2; Chau bt Brijesh Damani 4-2; Chawla bt Laxman Rawat (India) 4-1.