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Otters Club Amateur 9 Ball Pool Championship 2009
01 April 2009 @ Mumbai
Divya Sharma, Monu surprises toppers
by Pradeep Vijayakar
On the last day of the league before the
round of 16, Haryana’s Divya Sharma was a surprise group topper ahead of
National champ Rafat Habib. "I haven’t had much practice for the last six
months but after coming here I feel good," said Divya who lost in the round
of 32 at the Nationals. Monu Choudhary was another surprise packet shocking
Manan Chandra to also make the cut by topping the pool.
Alok said later, "Though I didn't reach
the National finals, I am No 2 in both 9-ball and 8-ball Poll after the camps
and will be playing in the Asian Indoor."
Alok's best has been reaching two semis of
the Asian Tour when he beat world champs Francisco Bustamante of Philippines and
Chow Peng of Taiwan.
Alok has also been India's snooker and
billiards national champ but last year was bad, he just reached last eight of
snooker and lost in the round of 16 in billiards. That's what prompted him to
say this is a Pool year for him. He says the usual cautious approach he displays
in the other two cue sports he sheds in Pool. "One has to attack all the time
but not over-try" is his mantra for the young hopefuls. He plans to go to
play in the Us or Taipei to further his Pool game. He is happy that players are
now giving Pool the attention it deserves.
Otters lad Roshan Mirchandani led the
qualifiers who included Faisal Khan, Aditya Mehta, Manan Chandra, Monu Choudhary,
Yasin Merchant, Brajesh Damani, KamalChawla, Sumit Talwar and Sandeep Gulati.
Playing his concluding match in Group B,
Choudhary sailed to an impressive 8-4 win in the best-of-eight racks contest to
top the group with an all-win record. Chandra though finished second in the
group to qualify for the knock out.
In a crucial Group A tie, where a win was
mandatory for both cueists, India No. 1 Rafat Habib of Railways beat Devendra
Joshi of PSPB 8-3 to finish second in the group where Divya Sharma of Haryana
qualified as the topper.
In a significant Group D encounter, Brijesh
Damani of Kolkata ended the hopes of women’s 9-ball national champion Anuja
Thakur with an 8-4 win.
Alok
Kumar won his battle with brinkmanship with an 8-6 win over Chennai lad Praneet
Ramchandani and proclaimed, "The Otters tourney will mark a watershed for
Pool. This is a Pool year for me." Alok is one of a select 9-Ball Pool
exponents playing in Otters Club All-India event.
The tie against Praneet was a must-win affair for Alok for if he had lost he
would have had to beat Dharminder Lilly or be at the vagary of frame-difference
equation. Alok was always trailing until he nudged ahead at 7-6 when his
opponent missed the final ball No 9. Alok played a delicate cut to secure the
rack and he had a simple 6-9 plant to clinch the win.