Girish after taking a 2-0 lead almost lost the bet against the veteran cue ace as Geet began to baulk him with “fantastic snookers”.
Girish Rajashekar of Central Railway, Mumbai aspires to win the national snooker title.
He perhaps got the best lesson on the green baize from former world billiards champions Geet Sethi in a five-frame final league match of the Alumni Club-Anna University all India prize money snooker tournament at the club premises on Wednesday.
Girish after taking a 2-0 lead almost lost the bet against the veteran cue ace as Geet began to baulk him with “fantastic snookers”.
Geet levelled the score at 2-2, but lost the plot in the deciding frame when Girish compiled a break of 31 to take a 54-23 lead. Despite getting snookered on a couple of occasions, Girish stayed calm to pull off a big win to top the group.
“I had beaten Geet earlier in the Andhra Club, however, I lost to him 3-4 after leading 3-1 in the Access Club tournament last month,” Girish told DNA.
“I have been playing snooker for 11 years and moved over to Mumbai in the last one-and- half-years, but I hail from Coimbatore. My biggest win was against Muhammad Sajjad in the World Cup at Hyderabad, which boosted my ranking considerably. My biggest ambition is to win the national championship,” Girish, who kept looking up at Coimbatore’s Prem Prakash for inspiration during the course of his match against Geet, added.
It was a day of the youth as 24-year-old Aditya Mehta of Mumbai defeated another veteran Devendra Joshi, also in five frames, on the second table.
It was indeed a great treat to watch two veterans battling out against two youth in adjacent matches. Aditya Mehta found a tenacious Devendra Joshi coming back at him every time he won a frame. With scores tied 2-2, all eyes were focussed on the deciding frame. Aditya capitalised on the miss of Devendra to compile a fluent 31 to take a 51-9 lead.
Though Devendra tried his best to catch up, Aditya steadily increased his tally to clinch frame and match. Both Aditya and Devendra qualified for the pre-quarterfinal knock-out.
Results: Group B: Kamal Chawla bt Manu Dev 0-65, 92-21, 84-09, 70-33; Group C: Yasin Merchant bt Srinivas 52-22, 69-14, 92-09; Group D: Alok Kumar bt SA Saleem 27-76, 59-52, 58-37, 30-69, 72-67; Alok Kumar bt Shabhaz Adil Khan 30-103, 72-43, 68-29, 102-42; Group E: Manan Chandra bt Rupesh Shah 38-75, 31-70, 62-38, 70-47, 91-31; Group F: Aditya Mehta bt Dhruv Sitwala 56-55, 39-54, 67-45, 80-52. Aditya Mehta bt Dvendra Joshi 81-43, 62-19, 33-74, 24-65, 69-34; Group G: Geet Sethi bt Siddharth Rao 69-0, 74-39, 51-21; Girish R bt Geet Sethi 64-25, 62-19, 33-74, 24-65, 69-34; Group H: Brijesh Damani bt Sandeep Gulati 61-51, 55-22, 67-26.
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