Sethi adds another title at Gilchrist’s expense

The match lived upto it’s pre-match hype as the two fought neck-to-neck for most part of the four-hour final.

Quite unlike his normally slow start, Sethi went on a scoring spree from the beginning. Three century breaks of 108, 197 and 128 saw him make 467 after just six visits to the table.

“Geet getting a perfect start put a lot of pressure on me,” revealed Gilchrist who is also known for his quick scoring. But apart from a 172 on his seventh visit, he lay low for most of thefirst two-hour session.

“I played some careless shots which meant trouble. He (Sethi) managed to score every time he went to the table,” stated the Briton as his rival led 853-387 going into the interval thanks to a 203 break in just 14 minutes.

But knowing Gilchrist, even the 466 lead with two-hours to go was not a position to relax. The Briton made his intentions clear as slammed a break of 230 on his first visit of the second session.

“Coming back after the interval, I felt I still had a chance to win. But with Geet scoring consistently and making no mistakes, things were becoming increasingly difficult,” said Gilchrist.

Sethi was at his best during a break of 274 which came towards the end of the third hour of play. A miscued stun shot, while trying to go for the red into the top-right pocket, ending it.

Though he missed out on a chance to grab an additional Rs 5,000 by scoring a a 351 break, the 19-minute effort shifted the balance considerably in Sethi’s favour. His lead increased toaround 500 after Gilchrist had managed to bring it down to around 200.

The cueist from Cleveland County in Middlesborough did accelerate on his scoring cracking a 73 and a 116 to see his total touch four figures. But with time running out and Sethi adding up his scores, only a superhuman effort could have brought about a reversal of fortunes. But that was not to be. The Indian finished with a 500-plus more to his name as the timer sounded.

Sethi managed to overcome some poor form earlier in the tournament quite unlike last year when he played well during his run-up to the final before struggling in the title clash when he upstaged another Englishman Roxton Chapman.

It was for the second successive time that he scored over Gilchrist. Sethi had earlier beaten him in the semi-finals of the last British Open which the former went on to win.

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