Chennai: Sourav Kothari from Kolkata set up a title clash with Kamal Chawla as he pulled off a merited 5-1 win over Noppon Saengkham of Thailand in the semi-final of the Kences Constructions-ASCA International Snooker tournament here Friday.
Chawla from Bhopal waged a marathon battle before subduing Hong Kong's Steven Chau 5-3 in the second semi-final.
Sourav, son of former World billiards champion Manoj Kothari, played consistent snooker to outplay the fancied Thai star as the Indian put in breaks of 47 in the first, 55 (second), 60 and 57 (third), 65 (fourth), and 57 and 49 (fifth) before closing the match on the back of 71.
Saengkham, who had upset fancied Aditya Mehta, the Indian champion, 4-3 in the quarter-finals, could not reproduce the form and appeared a spent force against Kothari who made the best of easy offering.
The results:
Semi-finals: Sourav Kothari bt Noppon Saengkham (Thailand) 5-1 (57-68, 93-31, 118-1, 95-16, 109-11, 77-7); Kamal Chawla (India) bt Steven Chau (Hong Kong) 5-3 (81-0, 55-68, 73-20, 104-1, 13-72,44-75, 71-8, 71-36).
Quarter-finals: Saengkham bt Aditya Mehta 4-3; Kothari bt Andy Lee (Hong Kong) 4-2; Chau bt Brijesh Damani 4-2; Chawla bt Laxman Rawat (India) 4-1.
