Sourav Kothari ended eight years of pain and frustration, exacting revenge on rival Pankaj Advani to storm into the semifinals of the IBSF World Billiards Championship (long-up format) here on Wednesday.
Determined to make up for the bitter quarterfinal loss he suffered against the 15-time world champion at the very same KSBA hall in 2008, a rejuvenated Kothari played perhaps the game of his life to post a resounding 1000-644 victory and set up a semifinal against the young Dhvaj Haria, who beat Aung Htay 1001-677.
“You have to always play the game of your life to beat someone like Pankaj,” a relieved Kothari said. “I still remember the 2008 game where I was leading by over 300 points and started picturing the trophy. I missed a simple red pot and Pankaj made a sensational come back. I've been carrying that monkey on my back for a long time. It feels great to finally take it off. I owe this win to my father (Manoj) who not only taught me the game but helped me tide through that tough phase.”
Advani, the defending points format champion who had looked in brilliant touch in the group stages where he posted four smooth wins and vanquished veteran Alok Kumar 750-547 in the pre-quarterfinals earlier in the day, seemed in a mood against Kothari.
Well aware of how dangerous Kothari can be having waged many a battle with him since his junior days, Advani set the pace to the tricky affair with breaks of 66 and 172 points in just his second and third visits respectively.
Second wind
Leading 240-3 it looked like Advani, playing some free-flowing billiards, was headed for an early dinner. Kothari, enjoying a second wind in his career having won the Asian Billiards title in 2014 and the Arjuna award this year, got his chance and the 32-year-old posted a break of 198 points to equal the scores at 256-256 and show that’s he not going to be a pushover.
A cat and mouse game ensued thereafter as both Advani and Kothari took time to size up their chances. Advani, however, always stayed a step ahead of his rival with visits of 68, 5 and 28. Kothari then knew he really had to come up with something big if he wished to turn the tide.
He blasted a break of 181 points to surpass Advani for the first time in the match but surrendered the table back while leading 573-463. Advani conjured a break of 65 to narrow the margin but then started making too many unforced errors. Kothari then hammered a break of 293 points but it looked like history could repeat itself as he missed a simple red pot with the tape in sight.
Not the one to give up without a fight, Advani looked like staging an improbable comeback yet again but missed a regulation red pot while on a 100-point break. Kothari then finished the job off with an unfinished break of 51 points.
Meanwhile, defending champion Peter Gilchrist marched into the semifinals with a crushing 1000-347 win over Robert Hall. The Singaporean will take on Rupesh Shah, who downed 16-year-old Suryanarayanan Shrikrishna 1002-646.
Results: Quarterfinals: Sourav Kothari (Ind) bt Pankaj Advani (Ind) 1000 (55, 198, 68, 181, 293, 51 unf) - 644 (66, 172, 96, 68, 65, 100); Dhvaj Haria (Ind) bt Aung Htay (Mmr) 1001 (81, 68, 133, 121, 157, 87) - 677 (61, 80, 88, 69, 85, 73); Peter Gilchrist (Sing) bt Robert Hall (Eng) 1000 (164, 83, 93, 144, 138, 87, 97, 100) - 347 (91, 131); Rupesh Shah (Ind) bt Suryanarayanan Shrikrishna (Ind) 1002 (118, 91, 216, 74, 68) - 646 (85, 110, 72, 50).
Pre-quarterfinals: P Advani bt Alok Kumar (Ind) 750 (130, 157, 86, 50) - 547 (99, 69, 69, 99); S Kothari bt Jaiveer Dhingra (Ind) 750 (208, 133) - 432 (66, 89); A Htay bt Chit Ko Ko (Mmr) 750 (72, 87, 59, 56, 70, 114, 60) - 697 (104, 63, 100, 55); D Haria bt Shankar Rao (Ind) 750 (86, 104, 107, 131, 79) - 381 (64); S Shrikrishna bt B Bhaskar (Ind) 750 (81, 83, 51, 122, 90, 50) - 721 (57, 58, 325, 50, 57); R Shah bt Siddharth Parikh (Ind) 750 (56, 200, 101, 113, 89) - 470 (143); P Gilchrist bt Soheil Vahedi (Irn) 750 (86, 157, 212, 56) - 299 (87, 67); R Hall bt Dhruv Sitwala (Ind) 752 (73, 60, 64, 83, 119, 108, 91) - 632 (62, 79, 230, 69).
Semifinal line-up: S Kothari vs D Haria; P Gilchrist vs R Shah.