Habib beats lacklustre Yasin

MUMBAI: Yasin Merchant was a pale shadow of the player who won the Shyam Shroff snooker title last year. On Friday, he appeared to be sleep-walking around the tables and was trounced 4-0 by Rafath Habib.
This was the third upset after qualifier Faisal Khan shocked favourite Devendra Joshi 4-3 and R Girish edged out Rupesh Shah 4-3 in the HSBC Premier-Shyam Shroff Memorial Open Invitation Snooker Tournament at the Khar Gymkhana on Friday.
The match between the Asian Games doubles winners turned when Yasin, down 0-1 played the blue badly and couldn't position for the pink which Habib claimed for a black ball finish.
Yasin was just not able to pick up the pieces and went down and down. "Lost to him after a real long time," said Yasin who said an old failing of failing under halogen lights cropped up.
With Manan Chandra in his group qualifying for knockout appears tough. Habib said, "I knew he would strike back and just kept playing safe." Habib has missed out on the Asian 9-ball pool tour which has been cancelled.
Faisal rallied from 0-2 and 1-3 deficits to pull off a nail-biting 0-85, 31-93, 91-0, 43-68, 72-58, 69-55, 68-51 win over Joshi.
Ashok Shandilya, who lost his opener to Kamal Chawla, earned his first win in two outings when he overcame Khar Gymkhana's Amandeep Kohli 4-2 in Group D, as the latter crashed to his second defeat.
Saurav Kothari overcame fancied Rupesh Shah of Railways 4-2 that included breaks of 58 in the second frame and 66 in the third, in Group B.
Results:
Rafath Habib beat Sharan Damania ( 4-0,Yasin Merchant 4-2;R. Girish beat Deepak Khubchandani 4-1;