S. Shrikrishna has a habit of talking to himself during matches. “It’s almost like talking to a third person,” revealed the Chennai youngster who won the men’s National billiards title a few weeks ago the other day. “Sometimes, I even ask why you’re playing like this.”
However, on Wednesday, Shrikrishna virtually did not have anything to tell himself as he lost to Ben Woollaston 0-4 in the Indian Open world-ranking snooker tournament at the Grand Hyatt, Bolghatty Island.
A wild card, the 19-year-old was all at sea against the seasoned Englishman in the qualifying round and had a good reason for it.
“These tables are very fast, they are totally different from what we are used to,” said Shrikrishna, whose only decent break was a 32 in the opening frame. “I would have played better had I spent more hours on these tables. I just got around two hours.”
Hyderabad’s Himanshu Jain also suffered a straight frame loss to Jack Lisowski.
“The tables are quite fast, the reactions are quite different. Everything was perfect but we are not used to these. I got used to it after a couple of frames,” said Himanshu. “The third frame was close on the black ball. But, from this match, I know that we can also play with them.”
Wildcards do better
Two other Indian wildcards, Asutosh Padhy and Laxman Rawat, fared better despite losing. While Asutosh took two frames against Wales’ Dominic Dale, Rawat lost 1-4 against China’s Zhou Yuelong.
The luckiest Indian was 16-year-old Digvijay Kadian who got into the main draw after his opponent Jamie Jones of Wales was disqualified on disciplinary grounds.
The big names — Scotland’s defending champion John Higgins and England’s Stuart Bingham, both former World champions — registered wins. Higgins defeated Ashley Hugill 4-1 in the qualification round while Bingham beat compatriot Peter Lines by a similar margin.
Important results: Ben Woollaston (Eng) bt S. Shrikrishna (Ind) 4-0 (60-45, 62-12, 71-8, 63-2); Jack Lisowski (Eng) bt Himanshu Jain (Ind) 4-0 (63-26, 73-17, 63-58, 94-0); Dominic Dale (Wal) bt Asutosh Padhy (Ind) 4-2 (93-13, 68-51, 83-41, 19-91, 40-88, 71-42); Zhou Yuelong (Chn) bt Laxman Rawat (Ind) 4-1 (76-36, 87-6, 82-16, 19-67, 110-13).
