Prabhakar scrapes through to seal semifinal spot
filed on Sunday, May 24, 2015. 7:40pm PT/USA
The reigning United States National Snooker Champion, Ajeya Prabhakar, had to fight back to win a final frame quarterfinal thriller to continue the defense of his title at the Prince Snooker Club in Brooklyn, New York.
After such an easy passage into the last-eight, the Californian found himself 2-0 and 3-1 down to Cheang Ciing Yoo and on the verge of a major upset.
However, Prabhakar has proved to be the master of brinkmanship playing at the Prince Snooker Club in this Championship, as both of the previous semifinals he competed in he came back from a 3-0 deficit to remarkably win 4-3, and he used all of that experience to pull himself out of this quarterfinal hole.
He took frame five on the final colored balls, and while he comfortably secured the next frame, his nerves were duly tested again in the last frame of the match of which he also claimed on the final colored balls to win 4-3.
Prabhakar will now face the former three-times Champion Ahmed Aly Elsayed in the semifinals who had a fairly routine 4-0 win over Ian O'Mahony in their quarterfinal encounter. Although Prabhakar will have the memories of the two losses he suffered against Aly in the previous two Championship finals played at the Prince Snooker Club, he did however score a fantastic 4-3 semifinal victory over the player from Brooklyn in the 2012 Championship semifinal at the Embassy Billiards Club in San Gabriel, California.
The winner of that 2012 Championship, Sargon Isaac, continued his good form as he came through without any problems a 4-0 quarterfinal victor over Kevin Wong, and in the semifinals he will take on last year's runner-up, Raymond Fung, with the local player defeating the record five-times Champion, Tom Kollins, 4-0.
The semifinals will commence Memorial Day Monday morning, followed in the afternoon by the final.
Confirmation of the quarterfinal results are as follows:
Quarterfinals (Best-of-7 frames) |
Match ID |
Player |
|
Player |
QF1 |
Ajeya Prabhakar (California) 1 |
4 - 3 |
Cheang Ciing Yoo (Washington) |
QF2 |
Ahmed Aly Elsayed (New York) 4 |
4 - 0 |
Ian O'Mahony (New York) |
QF3 |
Raymond Fung (New York) 2 |
4 - 0 |
Tom Kollins (Michigan) |
QF4 |
Sargon Isaac (California) 3 |
4 - 0 |
Kevin Wong (New York) |
The semifinals draw is as follows:
Semifinals (Best-of-7 frames) |
Match ID |
Player |
|
Player |
SF1 |
Ajeya Prabhakar (California) 1 |
vs. |
Ahmed Aly Elsayed (New York) 4 |
SF2 |
Raymond Fung (New York) 2 |
vs. |
Sargon Isaac (California) 3 |
Full coverage of the Championship will continue here on SnookerUSA.com.