The Hindu : Sport / Billiards & Snooker : Winning start by top players

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Winning start by top players

Sports Reporter

Alok Kumar tested by Shahbaz

— Photo: K.V. Srinivasan

HARD-FOUGHT WIN: Alok Kumar prevailed over Shahbaz Adil Khan in five frames.

Chennai: All the big names on show on day one of the Alliance Group-ASCA all-India invitation snooker tournament here on Monday won their opening group fixtures.

Alok Kumar pushed the farthest, his Group ‘D’ match against Shahbaz Adil Khan going to five frames. After the pair had split the first two frames, Shahbaz came one missed black short of taking the third.

He won an equally close fourth with an audacious final pot, the paths of the cue ball and the black ball almost creating a right angle. Trailing 1-49 in the fifth, Shahbaz rallied with a break of 32, which ended when he missed a difficult long yellow attempt.

Brilliant shot

Alok potted the yellow, and highlighted the importance of the stroke at the end of the game. “Shahbaz played really well to come back from 49-1, and calculated his break perfectly. I played a brilliant shot to pot the yellow; the cue ball ended up perfectly for the green,” he said.

Manan Chandra began the tournament in ominous form. He made a 98 break in the first frame, and either side of a solitary red potted by his Group ‘B’ opponent Prem Prakash in the second, he amassed 132 points. By the time Manan had blown the proverbial dust off his cue tip, Rafath Habib and Manish Jain, who had begun their match concurrently, had only just completed their first frame.

Sourav Kothari also made a near-century break in the first frame of his Group ‘C’ game against Sunil Mathew, which ended on 95 as he failed to pot a difficult black, under-hitting a tight mechanical-bridge-aided shot. His second and third frames took longer than Manan’s, but there was no doubt who was going to win them, the 23-year-old from Kolkata looked in imperious touch.

Imperious Advani

Earlier, Pankaj Advani was equally imperious against Varun Kumar in their Group ‘A’ game. He began with two fouls, hitting a red ball with his cue for the second. But it proved a minor blip, as he raced to an 80 break to finish the first frame, and made a 63 break in the second.

Geet Sethi also made a 63 break, in the second frame of his Group ‘F’ match against Vijay Nichani, which he took in three frames. He later said that he had been far more fluent in his performance here than at the World Championship qualifying games. “I’m not that consistent nowadays. After (turning) 35, it’s a struggle; I need to have more days like this one,” he said.

The results:

Group ‘A’: Pankaj Advani bt Varun Kumar 87-19, 103-23, 93-18.

Group ‘B’: Manan Chandra bt Prem Prakash 98-0, 86-1, 72-26.

Group ‘C’: Sourav Kothari bt Sunil Mathews 95-0, 53-19, 54-44.

Group ‘D’: Alok Kumar bt Shahbaz Adil Khan 75-41, 54-66, 61-48, 60-68, 63-38.

Group ‘E’: Harpreet Singh bt S.N. Dwarak 80-15, 67-12, 76-3.

Group ‘F’: Geet Sethi bt Vijay Nichani 92-20, 89-7, 56-20; Rafath Habib bt Manish Jain 80-41, 71-0, 36-63, 69-24.

Group ‘G’: R. Karthik bt S.A. Saleem 12-74, 74-32, 57-12, 55-9.

Group ‘H’: Pranit bt Neeraj Kumar 64-56, 62-27, 33-86, 67-1.

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