Ferreira in pain, succumbs to Alok Kumar’s `okay’ effort

As former World amateur champion Manoj Kothari put it, it would take more than a few strokes to get tuned to the split of the balls, and of course the new cloth which made the objects slide around, at times uncontrollably.

Kothari’s views, which he expressed after vanquishing Harish Gandhi 1000-899, were echoed by the other winners. Mukesh Rehani won the only first round match of the championship, 1000-672 against Dhruv Sitwala, and Alok Kumar was a comfortable 1000-572 winner over Michael Ferreira.

In fact, the averages of the opening three matches did not cross even 15 whichamply reflected the standard of play, though, it must be admitted that the scoring was par for the course given the conditions.

The new, experimental points-up format also generated its quota of debate with the matches lasting a little over three hours. By the looks of it, the format seems to be a necessary evil though it might put a ceiling on big breaks, since the intention is to curb “delaying” tactics of some of the players.

In the afternoon session, Alok came the closest to the coveted three-figure break before he broke down when on 91. But then, he was anything but pleased with his performance which he described as “okay”.

Alok, probably, would have derived far more satisfaction had Ferreira, whose days are clearly behind him, been able to put forth an effective challenge.

Ferreira had problems enough even to bend at the table like he used to as he was suffering from a bad back. “I haven’t touched the cue for the past eight days,” said a despondent Ferreira in the morning as he tried aspot of shadow billiards. It meant an alteration in his stance, having to bend both the knees.

As such, Ferreira could barely put together a decent break, the highest of which was a 44 in the 14th visit. It was pittance for a player who has 1000-plus breaks in competition play.

“But till there is life in my body, I would like to play billiards. I enjoy the sport but not this pain,” he said after the match, the eyes reflecting the severe pain he was in.

If Alok, who plays defending champion and top seed Geet Sethi in the pre-quarters on the morrow, was a winner by a mile, then Kothari seemed to have got bogged down towards close when he led by some 200 points.

Gandhi, better known for his snooker prowess, came within striking distance and a century break would have probably turned the tide. Eventually, Kothari kept his nose in front at the finish and had a cushion of a little over 100 points. Kothari next takes on No 3 ranked David Causier.

Rehani had an untroubled progress to the second roundwhere he meets Asiad gold medallist and No 9 Ashok Shandilya. Later in the day, Arun Agrawal defeated Ishmit Malik 1001-542 and in the process recorded the only century break (100) of the day. In another second-round match, Devendra Joshi overcame Satish Amarnath 1000-576 to enter the last-16 stage where he meets Chris Shutt.

Wednesday’s Fixtures

10 am (2nd round): Ian Williamson vs B Bhaskar; Ashok Shandilya vs Mukesh Rehani. 2 pm (2nd round): Subhash Agrawal vs Rupesh Shah; Peter Sheehan vs Aditya Goenka. 6 pm (pre-quarters): Geet Sethi vs Alok Kumar; David Causier vs Manoj Kothari.