Maharashtra’s Yasin Merchant has stormed into the final of the Madras Gymkhana All India Snooker championship after defeating the top seeded Manan Chandra of Petroleum Sports Control Board on Friday.

Merchant, who had won Asian Championship twice in 1989 and 2001, outplayed the Indian no. 1 Manan by 5-1 in the semifinal match.

In the final of the tournament, Merchant will lock horns with Aditya Mehta of PSPB who has defeated the second seeded Sourav Kothari by 5-2.

Earlier today, Mehta outplayed Faizal Khan of Railways by 91-15, 79-0, 84-2, 85-8, while Merchant outclassed Devendra Joshi of PSPB by 56-60, 91-1, 60-50, 75-0, 66-6 in the quarterfinal match.

While Chandra registered win over Alok Kumar of PSPB by 74-43, 87-45, 69-25, 8-75, 80-38 and Kothari defeated Brijesh Damani of Bengal at by 10-79, 71-57, 8-76, 88-0, 1-90, 11-75 64-48 in the other quarterfinal match.