Mumbai: Aditya Mehta has put the defeat at the hands of Chinese Jin Long in the final of the 24^th Asian Snooker Championship in Dubai out of his mind. He prefers to look at a string of tournaments to follow and his debut in the World Professional circuit for which he has got a wild card from Asia. He follows Geet Sethi, Om Agrawal and Yasin Merchant.

The final jinx caught up with Aditya Mehta again as he lost the Asian snooker final to the man who he outplayed in his opening match of the tournament, Jin Long of China, a former Asian champ.

Had he won the Asian would have been Aditya’s major snooker title. He had missed out on three titles earlier this year. The National final against Pankaj Advani, the Khar Gymkhana Shyam Shroff memorial to against Yasin Merchant and the 5^th RK Gupta Memorial  final against Sourav Kothari at Meerut.

The Indian Oil player and the son of Chembur Gymkhana player Snehal Mehta had taken a break last year and come back stronger. He was member of the silver-winning Asian Games Indian snooker team.

At Dubai in the Asian final Mehta was beaten but not disgraced to use the old cliché. Jin led 1-0 but Aditya his century of the tournament to level. Jin hit back with a 106. Mehta hit-back with a 56 but broke down. That was as far as he could go. Jin, with experience of an Asian win, kept Mehta at bay. It was a doubly bad day for India as Pankaj Advani lost 2-3 to Moh Keen Ho for the third spot.

Yasin Merchant wrote in his Gulf News column: “Mehta, who had promised so much during the course of the tournament, let go yet another opportunity to conquer his demons, which have plagued him for four finals now. The look on Jin's face was that of a winner and the game he produced, though not top class was just enough to keep Mehta at bay.”

Feeling sorry for Aditya was the versatile cueist Devendra Joshi who has seen Aditya grow from close quarters: “This final jinx was one psychological barrier Aditya had to beat,” said Joshi the billiards ace who was good enough to won the PSPB snooker title beating Advani. Still it was creditable for Aditya to reach the final which neither Advani nor two-time Asian champ Yasin Merchant could do.

Said Joshi about Aditya’s improvement this season: “He looks a complete player. There is consistency. He doesn’t miss easy shots much. He is the country’s best overall player. There is no rashness and flamboyance that marks other players of his age. There is a purpose in every shot Aditya plays.” Praise indeed.

Before Aditya the other Indians to win an Asian title were Yasin Merchant and Alok Kumar. Yasin did it twice. Pankaj Advani has won a world title but is yet to win the Asian. It proves how hard it is to win at Asian level. One remembers covering the second Asians in 1985 in Singapore when our first world champion Om Agrawal fell by the wayside along with Geet Sethi and Sanjay Sawant. Hong Kong’s Gary Kwok had won beating the first Asian champ Sakchai Simngram. Sanjay Sawant had beaten Sakchai in the league but lost to him in the semis. Shades of Aditya Mehta!