The Hindu : Sport / Billiards & Snooker : Top Indian players on a roll

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 21, 2005

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Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Top Indian players on a roll

By Avinash Nair

PUNE, FEB. 20. Top Indian cueists were on a roll. Barring rookies Rishab Thakkar and Sourav Kothari the other five swept through their opening day's programme with rustic elegance in the Asian billiards championship which got underway at the Pune Young Cricketers Hindu Gymkhana's Convention Hall here today.

Geet Sethi, seven-time World champion and winner of the inaugural Asian championship in Mumbai way back in 1986, looked a bit patchy in his 3-1 win over Khin Mg Oo of Myanmar but seemed to have regained his rhythm in the evening en route to his 3-0 rout of young Korean Wan Su Lee.

"Four days break after the selection camp seemed to have had its effect in the morning ... and all I wanted was some time at the table. The two hours today should be enough for me to find my form," said Sethi.

Sethi incidentally is getting into his peak form over the last few months and finished a close second to National champion Pankaj Advani, going by the points accumulated at the National and selection-cum-coaching camp.

Sethi at his flowing best is a purist's delight and today there was a good measure of it against the hapless Korean, in group A. Su Lee took a slender lead at 44-31 but then missed a simple in-off and Sethi quick in his approach shot and setting up his top table play ran off with an unfinished 70 break to wrap up the match in style.

Sethi started his evening session against Lee with a brilliant unfinished 101 to set the tempo. In the morning too against Mg Oo, Sethi began with a spectacular unfinsihed 104, the highest break of the day, but then tended to lapse in concentration.

Joshi at his best

Defending champion Devendra Joshi may have devoted much of his last few days getting the championship on track, but that also seems to bring out the best in him. Joshi, who won the last edition in Myanmar, made short work of Korea's Wan Su Lee 100-0, 100-82, 100-17, with breaks of unfinished 95 in the first and a 42 and 64 in the following frames, also in group A.

Pankaj Advani the teen sensation had fallen in the final against Ashok Shandilya in the Bangalore edition in 2002. But here he is determined to add the Asian title to his IBSF World snooker title. Playing two successive matches the Bangalore boy routed Sri Lanka's W.A.J. Weerasinghe in straight frames at 100-4, 101-22, 101-17 with a notable break of 73 (unfinsihed) in the third for his first win in the six-player group B.

Ashok Shandilya in group C and B. Bhaskar in group B too looked fluent although both admitted to be more cautious in their initial visits.

Among the foreigners, the Thai duo of Praput Chaithansakul, the double gold winner at the Busan Asian Games and his compatriot Thawat S. won, though the latter had to ward off a determined challenge from Sri Lanka's K.H. Sirisoma. Trailing 0-2 the Lankan recovereed brilliantly to pocket the next two frames before the Thai, much to his own relief, compiled a break of 46 to sneak through 3-2. Thawat won 101-63, 102-16, 90-101, 55-100, 100-88.

Praput, of whom much is expected, looked rusty but nevertheless smacked a 100-66, 100-12, 101-17 verdict over Singapore's Lin Jia Sheng.

The results (Indians unless mentioned):

Group A: Geet Sethi bt Khin Mg Oo (Myanmar) 104-0, 102-94, 49-100, 102-4; Devendra Joshi bt Wan Su Lee (Korea) 100-0, 100-82, 100-17; Thawat S. (Thai) bt K.H. Sirisoma (SL) 101-63, 102-16, 90-101, 55-100, 100-88; Geet Sethi bt Wan Su Lee (Korea) 101-14, 101-20, 101-31.

Group B: U Kyaw Oo (Myan) bt Rishab Thakkar 100-42, 100-42, 56-102, 102-28; Pankaj Advani bt W.A.J Weerasinghe (SL) 100-4, 101-22, 101-17; B. Bhasker bt Tommy Aang (Sin) 100-36, 102-35, 102-23.

Group C: Ashok Shandilya bt Imran Shahzad (Pak) 85-105, 101-34, 100-36, 101-0; Praput C. (Thai) bt Lin Jia Sheng (Sin) 100-66, 100-12, 101-17; Ashok Shandilya bt Seung Chil Park (Korea) 100-10, 101-32, 101-39.

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