The Hindu : Sport / Billiards & Snooker : Aditya makes short work of Little

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 04, 2004

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Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Aditya makes short work of Little

CARLOW (IRELAND), AUG. 3. Aditya Mehta entered the last 32 stage, alongside World amateur champion Pankaj Advani, with a 4-0 league win in the IBSF World Under-21 snooker championship here on Monday evening.

Mehta, India No.3 junior, came up with breaks of 49 and 63, then survived second frame in a black ball finish against Ireland's David Little before scoring his fourth win in the eight-player group `F'.

With top four cueists assured of berths in the knockout phase, Mehta's final league match was rendered academic.

Advani tasted his first defeat, losing 2-4 to Chinese sensation Tian Pengfei. Advani recovered from 0-2 with a break of 48 in the third frame, which he won 73-14. Despite opening with a break of 47, Advani was forced into the backfoot in the fourth frame as Pengfei cleaned up the table. The Indian won the fifth 109-0, with a break of 78, but the Chinese always held the whip hand.

At the end of the seven league matches, Advani had six wins, winning 26 frames and losing eight, and finished second in group `D' behind Pengfei.

Kothari misses the bus

The third Indian in the fray, Sourav Kothari, missed the bus as he finished fifth in his group. He had three wins from seven matches. In his last league match, Kothari defeated Gary Singh of Scotland 4-3, but the win came little too late.

In the first round of the knockout stage, Advani is to play Jessada Posukarn of Thailand. Mehta takes on Mark Allen of Northern Ireland.

The results (league): Group D: Pankaj Advani lost to Tian Pengfei (Chn) 2-4 (36-62, 39-70, 73-14, 47-33, 109-0, 0-81). Group E: Sourav Kothari bt Gary Singh (Sco) 4-3 (63-70, 42-61, 53-33, 66-30, 69-56, 33-68, 71-15).

Group F: Aditya Mehta bt David Little (Ire) 4-0 (67-2, 52-48, 83-8, 70-35); Mehta lost to Pramual Janthad (Tha) 3-4 (65-19, 37-61, 78-34, 131-10, 60-62, 42-81, 28-70).

The qualifiers: Group A: Liang Wen Bo (Chn), Sascha Lippe (Ger), Kevin Hanssens (Bel) and Mark Owens (Sco).

Group B: Johny Connors (Ire), Reanne Evans (Eng), Jessaida Posukarn (Tha) and Lam Ho Yin (Hkg).

Group C: Judd Trump (Eng), Brendan Byrne (Ire), Aled Brothers (Wal) and Raymond Fry (N. Ire).

Group D: Tian Pengfei, Pankaj Advani, Clifford Carson (N.Ire) and John Loh Ei Loong (Mal).

Group E: Mark Allen (N.Ire), Nisar Ahmed Saif (Qat), Ben Nunan (Aus) and Kevin Van Hove (Bel).

Group F: Pramul Janthad, Jaime Jones (Wal), Lee Page (Eng) and Aditya Mehta.

Group G: Gary Wilson (Eng), Kobkit Palajin (Tha), Jonathan Grant (Ire) and Michael White (Wal).

Group H: David Morris (Ire), Moh Keen Ho (Mal), Xiao Guo Dong (Chn) and Shannon Dixon (Aus).

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