The Hindu : Sport / Billiards & Snooker : Four Indians in quarterfinals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 16, 2005

Sport

Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Four Indians in quarterfinals

By Geet Sethi

MALTA, MARCH 15. There are four Indians left in the quarterfinals of the 2005 IBSF World billiards championship - points format. On Monday afternoon after all seven Indians qualified from their groups, the last 16 draw was made on the basis of a reseeding process which saw four players — Australia's Robby Foldvari, Dhruv Sitwala, Devendra Joshi and Pankaj Advani — all tied for the no. 1 ranking as they had not a lost a single game in three matches.

Using a random draw of lots, the Australian was picked as the No. 1, Sitwala No. 2, Joshi No. 3 and Advani as the fourth. I finished No. 5, Shandilya No. 6, Joe Grech No. 7 and Phil Mumford as No. 8.

This reseeding meant Foldvari was pitted against Ireland's David Murray and won his last 16 contest 4-0. He now meets England's Mumford who eliminated Singapore's Alan Puan 4-1. Pankaj Advani committed a few unforced errors but was still too good for Ireland's John McIntyre who he outclassed 4-0. Advani now meets me in the quarterfinals.

My match against England's Martin Goodwill turned out to be a spectators delight as the former RAF pilot, who now flies the Airbus 320 for British Airways, raised his game and drew level to force the decider despite breaks of 68 in the second, 152 unfinished in the third and 144 in the fifth. I have been playing well throughout this event and was reflected through a series of unfinished 150 breaks in every match.

Goodwill, however, had an inspirational burst that saw him winning the opening game with a 57, the fourth with a 52 and sixth with a 76. However I gave him no chance in the decider as I ran out with a 151 unfinished on my first scoring visit.

Consummate ease

In the lower half of the draw, Joshi was pitted against Kolkata's Sourav Kothari and eliminated him with consummate ease. The 20-year-old Kothari, who is trying to emulate his illustrious father Manoj Kothari, who won the IBSF world billiards title in 1990, has all the essential qualities to make it to the top of the world. Commitment, dedication, an eagerness to learn new techniques and most importantly a level head will see him joining his friend and compatriot Advani as a world beater in the not so distant future.

On Monday night he failed to discover his best form and an experienced cueist like Joshi did not allow him to get into the match. With the time event still to be played, Kothari still has enough hours of billiards left in Malta to justify the faith and hope which everyone from India has of him.

Joshi now meets Alok Kumar in the quarterfinals thanks to a well fought and richly deserved 4-2 victory the latter earned over Shandilya. With both, Shandilya and Kumar, struggling in their round robin matches the quality of play remained below par till Kumar, the current Asian snooker champion, who along with Sourav Kothari, Dhruv Sitwala and Advani is representing team ONGC, cracked in his first unfinished 151 since the event began on Sunday, to win convincingly.

Poor form

Shandilya's poor form continues to plague him. There are insidious technical faults which have crept in, the most alarming being shifting his body on some shots. But his mental toughness complimented by his fighting instincts remain as sharp and it is with these two qualities that he will be able to rebuild his game and come back into serious contention in competitive play.

Australia's Mathew Bolton compiled breaks of 140 unfinished and 113 unfinished to eliminate ONGC's Dhruv Sitwala in a high quality encounter. Sitwala, who was seeded second, won the opening two games with an unfinished 140 in the second but failed to capitalise on the early advantage. Bolton now plays Malta's Joe Grech, who outclassed Paul Mifsud 4-2.

The best of seven quarterfinals will feature Foldvari v/s Mumford, Sethi v/s Advani, Joshi v/s Kumar, Bolton v/s Grech.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport