Arun Agrawal packs off Sethi

August 6: Beware of the unknown! Geet Sethi would probably be telling himself that after he suffered a sensational defeat to unheralded a...

August 6: Beware of the unknown! Geet Sethi would probably be telling himself that after he suffered a sensational defeat to unheralded and unsung Arun Agrawal (ranked 16th) in the quarterfinals of the Florsheim World Professional Billiards championship at the Taj Connemara hotel, today.

The final scoreline of 1000-999 reflected the closeness of the contest that highlighted human frailties under pressure, something that Sethi admitted after the match.

Title favourite Mike Russell of England kept his nerve in the face of a strong challenge from Nalin Patel to post a 1000-720 victory for a berth in the semi-finals where he will meet the young pretender to the throne, Chris Shutt. The 21-year old sixth ranked Shutt put out David Causier (No 3) 1002-829 in the morning.

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In between, former champion Peter Gilchrist brought into play his vast experience to slip past Peter Sheehan 1001-647 and set up a meeting with Agrawal in the round of four.

Battle of nerves: The Sethi-Agrawal contest went to the player who handled the pressure better. Sethi came within a shot of pulling off a victory but missed an in-off. It left Agrawal to get 53 for a win which he did amidst tremendous tension.

Qualitatively, the match had little to offer barring occasions when both Sethi and Agrawal brought off several excellent shots. From Agrawal’s point of view, the script went as he had predicted last night after beating the fancied Roxton Chapman. The 40-year old from Mumbai, who turned professional three seasons ago, had said he was confident against Sethi whom he had pushed to the very edge in past meetings.

And on Friday, Agrawal said in a voice quivering with emotion: “After all Sethi is also human. It did not matter how I got those points (the last 53). I just wanted to stay at the table until the end.”

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Sethi too had his chances and was better-placed to win, but when on 977 after a run of 34, he missed another shot to open the doors for Agrawal. Later, he again broke down on an in-off needing just one more point for the match and this time, Sethi, the defending champion, was punished.

“I played poorly and was struggling to get the balls together. Yes, in the end, the pressure got to me,” confessed Sethi, whose best efforts were 124, 101, 98 and 94. Agrawal had runs of 110, 92 and 105, the last break helping him to nullify a huge deficit at the finish.

Saturday’s fixtures (semifinals): Peter Gilchrist vs Arun Agrawal (10 am and 4 pm); Mike Russell vs Chris Shutt (1 pm and 7 pm).