The Hindu : Sport : Rafath Habib fails to qualify

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 02, 2004

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Sport

Rafath Habib fails to qualify

By Michael Ferreira

EINDHOVEN (HOLLAND), DEC.1. For the first time in the 2005 IBSF World snooker championship all the Indian players were scheduled to play in the same session this morning. The chief interests from the Indian standpoint were whether Rafath Habib would beat Jussi Tyrkko (Finland) in a make or break Group E match, and whether defending champion Pankaj Advani could maintain his unbeaten record in his last Group match.

For Rafath, it was crunch time in a situation in which he is slightly out of his depth because he does not have the requisite experience at this level, and for Pankaj, the sheer pride of performance of a world champion would settle for nothing less. As it happened, both failed in their mission, but while Pankaj's 2-4 loss did not affect his position as the number one in Group F, Rafath's 0-4 defeat meant that he was out of the tournament.

Manan bounces back

Meanwhile, 23-year-old Manan Chandra bounced back from a poor result against Moh Keen Ho on Monday to score a 4-0 annihilation of Erhard Marhold (Germany). The rampaging Delhi youngster won 105-16, 99-0, 110-0, 78-8 with effortless runs of 46, 99, 69 and 50.In the other room, Alok Kumar, relieved at his making it to the knockout stages — albeit by the skin of his teeth — had a first frame blip, but recovered to uncork runs of 78, 56 and 50 in beating Laszlo Penzes (Hungary) 37-50, 82-8, 100-23, 101-1, 89-18.

Alex Borg (Malta) had no difficulty in disposing of Kiwi Daniel Haenga 4-1, breaks of 44, 106, 49 and 59 bearing testimony to his consistency. The win takes the handsome Maltese southpaw to the top of Group H and if he keeps up this form, he would be among the serious contenders for the title. Mohammed Joker squeezed through 4-3 against home favourite Rolf de Jong to finish third in Group F. Tyrkko took a 40-19 lead in the first frame, and with Rafath failing to profit from several clear chances, took the frame 62-31. Rafath raised hopes by going 29-1 ahead in the second, but messed up two promising opportunities to nail the frame. He compounded the errors by missing an easy brown at 52-42, allowing Tyrkko to pot brown to black for to go 2-0 up. Though Tyrkko had a first visit 50 in the third, he missed an easy red, giving Rafath an open table, but the tense Chennai cueist could only manage a 38 and eventually surrendered the frame after falling 38-70 in arrears on the colours.

The crafty Finn forced four fouls from a tight snooker in the fourth to open up a 49-17 lead and held firm against a late surge from Rafath by moving to 67-41 on the colours. A desperate attempt at the yellow found Rafath staring in disbelief when the ball not only stayed out but stopped over the centre pocket to hand the match to his opponent.

The names of the Indian qualifiers: Men's championship: Group B: Alok Kumar; Group C: Manan Chandra; Group F: Pankaj Advani. Ladies championship: Group B: Anuja Thakur.

Seniors championship: Group A: Geet Sethi; Group D: B.V.S. Murthy.

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