It was Aditya Mehta’s miss on the last pink against Stephen Maguire that saw India go down 4-3 to Scotland in the semifinals of the snooker World Cup that concluded in Wuxi, China, two days ago.
“I would have sunk that pink 95 times out of 100, but maybe the pressure got to me, or I just missed it. It’s debatable,” said Mehta in a chat with The Hindu on Tuesday, a few hours after his return home from China on Tuesday.
Scotland, represented by John Higgins and Maguire, went on to lose to China’s B team, comprising the 17-year old Zhou Yuelong and 15-year old Yan Bingtao in the final.
In a tournament played in the Davis Cup format (two singles frames, a doubles and two reverse singles), India, represented by Pankaj Advani and Mehta, started off with a 3-2 defeat to China-A but recovered to beat Malta 3-2, Singapore 4-1, Norway 5-0 and Austria 5-0 in the league stage, to enter the quarterfinals with a 19-frame win aggregate behind China-A’s tally of 21.
In the best-of-seven frame quarterfinal, India beat Belgium 4-1 before falling to Scotland in the last-four encounter.
Mehta’s own performance mirrored India’s; after losing 66-55 to China-A’s top player Ding Junhui, the World No.54 had reeled off ten straight frames before that loss to Maguire.
Mehta said he had carried his form from the RKG Open final in Mumbai into the World Cup.
He said he had expected Pankaj Advani to struggle initially on the new tables.
“But he picked up in the later stages of the Cup, showed his true character and was, in fact, the better player in the semifinal,” Mehta said.
On India’s progress in the tournament, he said: “We had to play five one-frame matches in the league, and the entry into the knock-out stage depended on the number of frames won.
“The idea was always to get full five points against the weaker teams and win two frames against the stronger ones.
“It was interesting to see the approach of the professionals: everyone was trying to finish the frame in one visit because a scrappy frame made the game slow and gave chance for the weaker player to win.
Aggressive“I was completely aggressive and I went for my shots. It worked out beautifully for us all the way and till the last ball of the tournament.”
China had won the Cup four years ago in Thailand.
“It just shows the talent in China now. Both Zhou and Yan won World Amateur titles when they were 15 and 13, and this win has done no harm to their reputation,’’ said Mehta.
