Rupesh Shah scores twice

By M.C. Raman

CHENNAI, FEB. 18. He is the lone cueist from the land of earthquakes. He did not have to undergo Dante's Peak like trauma. Fortunately for the 27-year- old Rupesh Shah his house and family members have escaped the wrath of the nature and the Gujarat player is highly focused now in his job of winning the title here. No wonder then he clinched both his matches on Sunday and one of the victims was his own Railway-mate Antim in Group E of the 67th Khel.com National men's billiards championship at Wild West, Spencer Plaza.

Even the Gujarat Club in which he practises is intact. That was why he could get some practice before he landed here for the championship. Rupesh defeated Antim Singhi at 589-273 first and then downed Kamal Chawla of MP later at 748-247. Rupesh virtually outclassed Chawla with two century breaks and the 300-point early lead hardly gave any chance for the rival to challenge him. Rupesh's is not a strong group like Group F, where the list reads like Who's Who - Rafath Habib, Manoj Kothari, Srinivasa Rao, Nitin Kholi and Arvind Savur, and he can even top the pool if he maintains the current form.

Rupesh is more determined and the way he fought against Antim would vouch for it. Rupesh outshone him with a series of breaks - 48, 75, 59, 48, 48, 74-43.

The results: Gr. A: Ashok Kumar (TN) bt Kikki Bhargav (Raj) 554- 373, Ashok Shandilya (Rlys) bt Mukesh Rehani (Del) 642- 365.

Gr. C: B. Bhaskaran (Kar) bt M.S. Reddy (AP) 614-410, Omar Balsara (Maha) bt M.S. Reddy 624-408. Gr. D: Alok Kumar (Pun) bt Jai Ganesh (TN) 657-403.

Gr. E: Antim Singh (Rlys) bt Dhruv Sitwala (Rlys) 457-393, Rupesh Shah (Guj) bt Antim Singhi 589- 273, beat Kamal Chawla (MP) 748- 247. Gr. F: Rafath Habib (Rlys bt M. Srinivasa Rao (AP) 467-444, Manoj Kothari (Ben) bt Nitin Kohli (UP) 499-410, bt Rafath Habib 598-448, Arvind Savur (Kar) bt Jaswinder Singh (Raj) 568-426, Nitin Kohli bt Srinivasa Rao 568- 376. Gr. G: Varun Taneja (Rlys) bt A. Haque (Ori) 623-445, Simachalam (Rlys) bt K.D. Cruz (Bhi) 922-324, bt A. Haque 487-384. Gr. H: Shyam Jagatiani (Rlys) bt Sandeep Duggal (Chan) 762-233, Ammilal (Del) bt Sandeep Duggal 395-361.

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