Rupesh Shah supreme

What has become a characteristic in all his matches in the tournament, Shah made a jittery start. Tulshan, on the other hand, showed sparks of his true potential, starting his campaign with a fine break of 93. But from there on, he seemed to lose his rhythm as Shah went into top gear. First came a break of 56 and Shah looked set to break the shackles. While Tulshan struggled, Shah piled up his tally with decent breaks. Down 30-97, Shah raced ahead and at the end of the first hour of the three hour encounter, he was leading212-143.

Thereafter, there was no stopping the Gujarat Sports Club player as he garnered century breaks of 147, 194, 115, 117, 112 and 113.

Even with the billiards title and Rs 5,000 in his pocket, Shah still seemed hungry for more. But the snooker title was a tough proposition with his opponent being top-seed Siddharth Rao, the former national champion. But there were early indications of an upset as the second seeded Shah took the first frame. A break of 44 saw him go one-up against Rao with scores of 62-36.

Rao, however, struck back taking the next two frames comfortably 80-56, 85-11. A frame down and things started looking grim for Shah. 8220;I kept telling myself I could do it. Like yesterday, I just concentrated on my game and that saw me through,8221; said Shah. The fourth frame turned out to be a one-sided fight as Shah took the frame 71-7.

The fifth set was a keenly contested affair. Both Rao and Shah looked desperate for a win. Shah came up with a timely break of 60 which put him in the driver8217;sseat. Not to be left behind, Rao came back strongly. With a black and orange ball on the board, Rao was only 10 points behind Shah. But just as the action thickened, Rao fouled by potting the white while going for the orange, giving away six valuable points to his opponent. Shah won the frame 76-60.

This seemed to play on Rao8217;s mind in the final frame too as he went down 28-75 to settle for the runners-up purse of Rs 3,000. Shah made another Rs 5,000 for his effort.

However, this is not the first time Shah has scored a double. He had achieved a similar fete year in 1996. 8220;I had done it once and I knew I could do it again,8221; said a beaming Shah as he went about accepting 8220;congratulations8221; from the spectators.

The top five snooker and top six billiards players here also qualified for the Alpic Om Agarwal Billiards and Snooker tournament which starts at the same venue tomorrow.

Billiards qualifiers: Rupesh Shah, Kamal Tulshan, Yasin Merchant, Siddharth Anand, Dhruv Sitwala and OmarBalsara

Snooker qualifiers: Rupesh Shah, Siddharth Rao, Amit Khansaheb, Kamal Tulshan, Varun Taneja

RESULTS Finals

Billiards: 1- Rupesh Shah bt 3- Kamal Tulshan 1385-476Snooker: 2- Rupesh Shah bt 1- Siddharth Rao 4-2 62-36, 56-80, 11-85, 71-7, 76-60, 75-28