Aditya receives his prize
from Ramesh Krishnan 

Aditya Mehta, India No. 3 in Snooker, defeated former National Snooker champion Yasin Merchant to win the Madras Gymkhana Club all-India invitation snooker trophy recently. Aditya is the son of Sheela and Snehal Jagdishchandra Mehta.

After Merchant won a close first frame, the match was fairly one sided, with Aditya winning the next four in a row, and also the last two, ehich he took comfortably at 70-52 and 73-23, capitalizing on every error that Merchant made.

Aditya had previously lost six finals to Merchant, making the win all the more memorable.  He had entered the final with a 5-2 win over second-seeded Sourav Kothari.

The 23-year-old Aditya, world ranked 84, collected Rs 1.4 lakh, the highest prize-money in Indian snooker. Former Davis Cup captain Ramesh Krishnan gave away the plaques and cheques.

Aditya now goes to London to play in the World Professional Snooker League. He was part of the Bronze medal winning team in Snooker at the Asian Games, Doha, 2006 and Runner Up at the Asian Snooker Championship, Dubai, 2008.

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