Star player Arjun Lavingia has proved that none can match him after he was crowned the 2015 Cargo Stars Dar Open snooker tournament champion at the Dar es Salaam Gymkhana Club (DGC) over the weekend. Arjun emerged champion after beating Manish Khattar 4-1 at the best of seven frames final.
The thrills prove that other players have a lot to do to match on Arjun, the only local player who took part at the African Snooker championship. Arjun started the final with determination and easily took the first frame, but his opponent gave him a tough fight in the second frame.
Arjun was 0-20 points down in the early stage before he hit back 59-42. But Khattar had good chance to recover and his foul shot with two balls (pink (6) and black (7) gave his opponent frame and 2-0 lead.
The third frame was not easy for Arjun but Khattar fought hard to corrects his early mistakes and managed to take it by 64-43 to pull one back 2-1 and make the competition more harder.
But Arjun came back strongly at the fourth and fifth frames and took it with 61-47 and 65-55 respectively to seal 4-1 victory. Although he lost the game Khattar gave the champion lots of pressure at the final.
Arjun said: “It was a tough final, Khattar is one of toughest contenders, I’m happy to add this one to my trophies cabinet,” he said. Before the final Khattar beat Kalpesh Lavingia 3-2 in the tough semi-final at the tournament that was dominated by the hosts club.
Arjun went through to the final showdown after 3-1 win over veteran Raju Kanabar who was looking for his first final since 2010 in another semi-final. The third playoff trophy went to Kalpesh who beat Kanabar 2-1.
About 60 players from six Dar-based clubs — Upanga Sports Club, Annadil Burhani, Aga Khan sports Club, Patel Samaj Dar Brotherhood, Dar Institute and hosts DGC — battled it out for the top honor.
They were slotted in four groups — A, B, C and D. The winner in each group advance into the semi-final and winner from that stage proceed into Saturday final. The three-week tournament was sponsored by Cargo Stars Ltd (CSL) and co-sponsored by Superior Graphics Ltd, Samsung, Hotel Sea Cliff Zanzibar, J.D Pharmacy, Spice Rack, Barbecue Nation, Acasia Jewels Ltd, Mac Tools and A.A. Power & Tools.
Snooker captain Nikhil Sangani thanked CSL and all sponsors for making the tournament a success. “I want to thank Cargo Stars and all sponsors for assisting us, it has been a wonderful tournament.
My appreciation also goes to all committee members for the job well done.” The winners received trophies from CSL top boss Dioniz Malinzi who is also the DGC chairman who thanked all participants.