ASCA International 2012

The Andhra Social & Cultural Association (ASCA) International takes place in the middle of June in Chennai (aka Madras) in Tamil Nadu State, India.

Interested to note it's apparently the largest prize money ever offered in India, and has most of the top Indian players including Aditya Mehta, plus IBSF World Champion (and new Pro) Hossein Vafaei Ayouri and Thailand's Noppon Saengkham.

Group stages taking place 17th - 20th June, 4 to a group with 2 to go through.

Aditya Mehta comfortably through his first group match, likewise Lucky Vatnani.

Interesting to see they haven't scheduled any of Hossein Vafaei Ayouri's matches until the penultimate evening, likewise his Iranian compatriot Ehsan Heydari. Noppon Saengkham of Thailand didn't have a match scheduled until this evening (no result on that yet), and the Hong Kong players don't have matches scheduled until the morning of the penultimate day of group matches - all in all they've taken account of where players are coming from in putting the schedule together.
Edit: Thailand's Ratchayothin Yotharuck also appears to have his first match scheduled for evening of 18th, and like Saengkham there's no result listed - possibly they were delayed en route?.

Because of that something had to give - the other players in group D have all played each other, only their matches against Saengkham remain, Manish Jain has 2 wins and Himanshu Jain 1 win. In Group C all matches bar one played, Sri Lanka's Susantha Boteju must defeat unbeaten Kamal Chawla if he's to go through instead of Rupesh Shah - that's assuming the positions are correct (I had heard that the local champ Loganathan had beaten Boteju, but not according to the group positions). In Group G the 3 local players have all played each other and await their matches with Steven Chau of Hong Kong - Sourav Kothari has 2 wins, I H Manudev has 1 win.

Just to add, Kamal Chawla has the best break so far with a 122 ( 13 reds with nine blacks, three blues and a brown followed by yellow-to-black clearance). Mehta's break in the last frame of his match was a 90.

Aditya Mehta ran out the 3 - 2 winner of a close match with Indian National Junior Champion Laxman Rawat, now just has Siddharth Parikh to play in Group B. Rawat is finished, having won his other 2 games so both will go through.

Noppon Saengkham has arrived, beat Manish Jain and Shivam Arora, both 3 - 1, to top Group D, just Himanshu Jain to play. And his Thai compatriot Ratchayothin Yotharuck won his two matches in Group H against 2 local players I.V. Rajeev and R. Girish but was pushed all the way, winning both matches 3 - 2. Yotharuck had better be on better form for his final match against Q School entrant Shahbaaz Khan.

Andy Lee and Steven Chau are now arrived from Hong Kong and getting underway, both won their opening group matches.

Hossein Vafaei Ayouri appears to be a no show.

Some groups now complete.

Qualifiers from Group B Aditya Mehta, Laxman Rawat

Qualifiers from Group D Noppon Saengkham (Thailand), Manish Jain

Qualifiers from Group E Andy Lee (Hong Kong), Brijesh Damani

Qualifiers from Group G Steven Chau (Hong Kong), Sourav Kothari

In Group A Lucky Vatnani is unbeaten with one match to play, against Pranit R, who has no wins.

In Group F Rafath Habib beat Manan Chandra 3 - 1 , Chandra beat Iran's Ehsan Heydari 3 - 2. Remaining match is Habib against Heydari.

In Group H Shahbaaz Khan beat Thailand's Ratchayothin Yotharuck 3 - 0, only remaining match is Khan against R Girish, who has yet to win a match.

Noppon Saengkham had a 122 break in his 3 - 0 defeat of Himanshu Jain.

Aditya Mehta had breaks of 77 and 65 in beating Siddharth Parikh 3 - 0 .

Last 16 line-up

Rafath Habib v Sourav Kothari
Ratchayothin Yotharuck (Thailand) v Andy Lee (Hong Kong)

Noppon Saengkham (Thailand) v Rupesh Shah
Divya Sharma v Aditya Mehta

Shahbaaz Khan v Laxman Rawat
Manan Chandra v Kamal Chawla

Steven Chau (Hong Kong) v Manish Jain
Brijesh Damani v Lucky Vatnani

Odd about Hossein Vafaei Ayouri not turning up to this. Shouldn't be visa problems because he's been in a few of these events.

Last 16 results so far:

Sourav Kothari 4 - 2 Rafath Habib (69—14, 57—53, 13—82, 61—53, 22—69, 67—28)
Andy Lee (Hong Kong) 4 - 1 Ratchayothin Yotharuck (Thailand) (57—22, 9—63, 70—8, 94—18, 70—20)

Noppon Saengkham (Thailand) 4 - 3 Rupesh Shah (63—60, 113(59,54)—8, 43—79, 54—79, 65—49, 0—93(63), 69—59)
Aditya Mehta 4 - 0 Divya Sharma (60—49, 72—50, 101—8, 128(76)—0)

Laxman Rawat 4 - 0 Shahbaaz Khan (60—36, 79—42, 53—43, 80—27)
Kamal Chawla 4 - 1 Manan Chandra (1—95, 68—59, 82—21, 83—22, 70—56)

Steven Chau (Hong Kong) 4 - 3 Manish Jain (68-32, 58-13, 31-66, 79-30, 20-100(64), 27-60, 72-32)

Don't know the result of Brijesh Damani v Lucky Vatnani other than that it was close ...

roy142857 wrote:Steven Chau (Hong Kong) 4 - 3 Manish Jain (68-32, 58-13, 31-66, 79-30, 20-100(64), 27-60, 72-32)

Don't know the result of Brijesh Damani v Lucky Vatnani other than that it was close ...

Brijesh Damani 4 - 3 Lucky Vatnani (08-127, 68-64, 00-74, 37-50, 58-08, 63-48, 54-20)

Quarter finals

Sourav Kothari 4 - 2 Andy Lee (Hong Kong) (13-108(100), 59-50, 78-39, 92(91)-00, 21-69, 65-26)

Noppon Saengkham (Thailand) 4 - 3 Aditya Mehta (116-01, 38-59, 84-66, 43-82, 19-83, 87-13, 104-00)

Kamal Chawla 4 - 1 Laxman Rawat (82-43, 57-49, 87-33, 17-67, 79-24)

Steven Chau (Hong Kong) 4 - 2 Brijesh Damani (10-74, 05-65(48), 61(48)-32, 53-41, 66-52, 59-45)

First Semi Final:

Sourav Kothari 5 - 1 Noppon Saengkham (Thailand) (57-68, 93(55)-31, 118(60,57)-01, 95(65)-16, 109(57,49)-11, 77(71)-07)

Report from Times of India here:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/spor ... 343053.cms

Second semi-final:

Kamal Chawla 5 - 3 Steven Chau (Hong Kong) (81-0, 55-68, 73-20, 104-1, 13-72,44-75, 71-8, 71-36)

So an all-Indian final between Chawla and Kothari ...

Edit - amended score - 5 -3 not 5 - 2

Report on second semi final:

http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/kothar ... 31440.html

Final

Kamal Chawla 6 - 4 Sourav Kothari

Well done to Kamal Chawla !