The Hindu : Sport : Geet Sethi fights back to enter final

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 05, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport

Geet Sethi fights back to enter final

Avinash Nair

Pankaj Advani dethrones Rupesh Shah to move a step closer to glory

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

ONE STEP AWAY: Geet Sethi and Pankaj Advani scored identical wins to enter the final of the IBSF World billiards championship on Thursday.

BANGALORE: Geet Sethi, who trailed Devendra Joshi 1–3 after the first session, scripted a turnaround to win 5–3 in the semifinals of ONGC IBSF World billiards championship at the KSBA hall here on Thursday.

Pankaj Advani ‘mastered’ his own self and Rupesh Shah, the defending champion, by an identical margin in the other semifinal.

Pankaj, an established champion in his own right, will take on the eight–time champion Geet in what promises to be an ‘epic’ final on Friday.

Contrasting sessions

The two sessions belonged differently to each player. Joshi, who came through the qualifying stage, had outsmarted Shyam Jagtiani (4–3) in the round of 16 and the fancied Praprut Chaithannasakun of Thailand in the quarterfinals 4–2.

He looked on a roll in the first session but a bad miss, which terminated his sequence of three century plus breaks at 90 in the fourth, gave Sethi a chance to come back into the match.

Sethi, down 0–3 at one stage and 1–3 after the first session, cantered away with the next four on resumption leaving Joshi twiddling his thumbs in his corner.

If was Sethi was edgy and uncertain in the morning, Joshi was barely at the table in the afternoon.

It was Sethi who got off the blocks first with an 87 in the very first frame. But ‘accumulator’ Joshi worked like a well–oiled machine thereafter and built breaks with a finesse of an artisan. Three successive century–plus breaks and Joshi was 3–0 up.

Making his move

After an extended break at 0–3, Sethi got down to business. A 40 (4th visit) and an unfinished 66 in the 11th gave him the impetus which he turned into a winning one with a string of four 130 plus unfinished breaks (two of them 150 plus).

“I’ve played many close and tight matches in the points format too…but this is amongst the best,” admitted Sethi, while Joshi conceded “he played some amazing billiards after the break.”

Local hero Advani, who ended Peter Gilchrist’s run with a 4–1 win in the quarterfinals, did not look his fluent best. An instinctive player, Advani was indecisive more often and virtually played into Rupesh’s hands with an unusual approach.

Rupesh did the catching up to share the first four frames and then went 3–2 with a steady, though drab game. But Advani was not the one to give in.

With an unrelenting top–of–the–table game, Pankaj clawed back and won the next three frames and a spot in the final with crucial breaks of 96 (sixth frame), 131 unfinished (seventh frame) and a 105 in the eighth.

The results (Indians unless specified): Semifinals (best of nine frames): Geet Sethi bt Devendra Joshi 5–3 (102(87)–151(122*), 95 (40,43)–151 (143*), 2–151 (142*),150(40, 66*)–126(90), 152 (152*)–57, 152(139*)–16, 152(152*)–112(108), 150(146*)–0).

Pankaj Advani bt Rupesh Shah 5–3 (150(57*)–115, 91(84)–152(85), 150(61)–142, 49–151(115), 98 (89)–152(93), 151(96)–118(61), 151(131*)–16, 150(105)–93).

Quarterfinals (best of seven frames): Advani bt Peter Gilchrist (Sin) 4–1 (151(53, 48, 48)–54 (47), 150(97)–141 (104), 36 –151(147*), 150(137*)–5, 150(136*)–61).

Sethi bt Alok Kumar 4–2 (151(71)–21, 150(150)–7, 151(149)–2, 68–150(67), 5–150(143), 121(55)–5 (concd).

Joshi bt Praprut Chaithanasakun (Tha) 4–2 (150(87)–89, 0–150 (58, 83), 138(124)–151(77, 62), 150(150)–8, 150(92)–70, 150(148)–0).

Rupesh bt Dhruv Sitwala 4–1 (113(65)–150, 152(152*)–32, 150(65)–142(142), 150(56, 94*)–44, 151(63, 21)–74).

Pre-quarterfinals (best of seven frames): Advani bt Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (Tha) 4–1 (17–150(81*), 150(150)–8, 150 (83, 48)–31, 150(150)–10, 150(148)–0).

Sethi bt Suriya Suwannasingh (Tha) 4–0 (152(130*)–21, 153(68*)–82(72), 150(68)–64, 150(146*)–58)).

Alok bt Prem Prakash 4–2 (36–151, 34–152(72), 151–109, 151(85)–72, 150(92)–68, 151(99)–84).

Rupesh bt B. Bhaskar 4–0 (150(49, 52)–100 (69), 150(108*)–73, 150(136)–149(147), 151(113*)–29).

Gilchrist bt Kothari 4–2 (42–150(78), 129–150, 151(62, 55)–105(83), 152(68)–60, 150(124*)–20, 150(150)–41). Chaithanasakun bt Brijesh Damani 4–2 (40–153(58), 151(89*)–122(5), 86–151(62, 67), 150(100*)–74, 152–82, 151(145)–17).

Sitwala bt Teik Chong Alan Puan (Sin) 4–1 (151(52)–135, 151–127(58), 151(74)–44, 117–150, 151(125)–40).

Joshi bt Shyam Jagtiani 4–3 (79–150(67), 126(56)–150(82), 7–150(143), 150–37,150–97, 150(83)–32,151(123)–19).

Note: * indicates unfinished.

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

Sport