The Hindu : Sport / Billiards & Snooker : Smooth start for Yasin

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 06, 2004

Sport

Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Smooth start for Yasin

By Michael Ferreira

AQABA, JUNE 5. Yasin Merchant, a two-time champion and the only Indian on view on the opening day of the 20th Asian snooker championship, streaked to a 4-0 win in just over an hour against a hapless Le Dung of Vietnam in a Group G encounter on Saturday.

It was not vintage Merchant, but it was pleasing to see the diffidence he exhibited during the National Championship a scant five months ago, metamorphose into the confidence that has been such a feature of his snooker persona over the years.

It was true that he was up against a player from a country that has no snooker tradition of speak of (the Vietnamese are lethal in carom, or pocketless billiards, but are still finding their feet in the 22 ball game), but at the end of the day he still had to rifle the balls into the pocket when he got the chance and this he did with quiet efficiency.

The only problem was that the indifferent quality of the opposition found him trying to force the pace a bit and as a result, several promising openings came to an untimely end as he tried to smash open the pack too early, when the better option clearly was to pick off the loose reds and then go for the kill.

In the first frame which he won 81-16, he constructed a rapid fire 51 which had `clearance' written all over it, but lost position when he hit the black a trifle too softly to get on to the third last red.

The second frame was a scrappy one, but breaks of 25 and 19 took him comfortably home for a 2-0 lead.

Sensing that he was not going to be pushed at all, Yasin seized on a gift opening to compile an opening 38 in the third, but once again missed when he tried to go for too much. He made up for it by punishing a mistake from his opponent for an effort of 36, which secured the frame 74-0.

The fourth and final frame was almost a mirror image of the third, an opening 37, initiated by a brilliant long red, being followed by a terrific 62 clearance to brown, his highest break of the match.

Supoj Saelna (Thailand) one of the danger men in this championship, struck an ominous note in his 4-0 demolition of Kameran Shahla (Iran) in Group D, a string of breaks providing compelling evidence that he is not here just to make up the numbers.

Supoj has been on the Main Tour of the pro circuit, thanks to a wild card granted to Thailand by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, and his stint in the pro ranks has seen his game go up a notch or two over last year.

I was talking to S. Weraphong of Thailand, the grizzled veteran tournament director of many an international event, and he jokingly suggested that I forget about the preliminary results and concentrate on the final in which Thailand would beat India.

The Thai contingent, from head honcho Sindhu Pulsirivong, who has almost single-handedly over the years moulded his country into a powerhouse of snooker, right down to their referees, is convinced that Supoj will cop the title. I believe that our boys will have a thing or two to say about that!

The 22-year-old Thai had efforts of 67, 66, 22 and 47 in his hour long match, and only a couple of bout of carelessness prevented those breaks crossing the century mark.

The results: Gr. A: Imran Shahzad (Pak) bt Amir Sarkhosh (Iran) 4-0; Gr. B: Teng Chi Lin (China HK) bt Mohammed Hameed (SL) 4-2; Gr. C: Yakub Alanzai (Kuw) bt Ida Bagos Sutasoma (Ina) 4-0; Gr. D: Supoj Saelna (Tha) bt Kameran Shahla (Iran) 4-0, Naif Aljawaween (KSA) bt Moh Keen Ho (Mal) 4-1; Gr. E: Ahmad Alktarkait (Kuw) bt Isam Mikkawi (Syr) 4-1; Gr. F: Alex Puan (Sin) bt Mohd. Hashim (SL) 4-1; Gr. G: Chih Wei Ku (Taipei) bt Nayef Abdulafu (Jor) 4-2; Gr. H: Yasin Merchant (Ind) bt Le Dung (Vie) 4-0, Ibrahim Aqel (Jor) bt Mohammed Banali (Qat) 4-0.