Lee rallies into semis of All India Snooker

Mumbai, Aug 9 (IANS) Hong Kong's Andy Lee recovered from a 0-2 deficit to overcome Faisal Khan of the Railways en route to the semi-finals in the Shyam Shroff Memorial All India Open Invitation Snooker Tournament at the Khar Gymkhana here Thursday.

Following a lackadaisical start, Lee made amends when he struck form midway to snatch a 5-3 win. While the lone overseas cueist took time to find his rhythm, Khan grabbed the opportunity to take an early lead.

But Lee used the third frame to launch his comeback and went ahead 3-2 following a black ball finish in the fifth frame.

Khan drew level by winning the next frame to raise hopes of a tight finish in the best-of-nine frames quarterfinal. But his challenge ended there as Lee capitalised in the seventh and eighth frames to set up a semi-final clash against India junior No. 1 Laxman Rawat of Delhi, who beat Manan Chandra of BPCL 5-0. Rawat fired a break of 122 for the tournaments second highest that surpassed Rafath Habib's 111.

Bombay Gymkhana winner Sourav Kothari of ONGC and 2009 champion Kamal Chawla of Bhopal will face off in the other semi-final following 5-0 wins in the other quarter-finals.

Quarter-final results: Kamal Chawla (MP) bt Sundeep Gulati (Delhi) 62(56)-24, 49-14, 75-35, 65-43, 76-0; Sourav Kothari (ONGC) bt Alok Kumar (ONGC) 75(70)-9, 71(52)-45, 66-25, 76-34, 85(54)-0; Laxman Rawat (Delhi) bt Manan Chandra (BPCL) 68-55, 122(122)-8, 63-2, 75(74)-14, 64-42; Andy Lee (Hong Kong) bt Faisal Khan (Rlys) 20-69, 6-76, 80-25, 70-19, 62-58, 31-84, 68-14, 62-17.