08 February 2013: Former Asian Champion knocked out reigning World champion

The reigning world Billiards champion Rupesh Shah got a shock defeat by the hands of former Asian Billiards champion and multiple times national champion Alok Kumar in an almost one sided match of Billiards Semi Final in Manisha National Billiards & Snooker Championship 2013 being held at Gymnasium Hall of Jiwaji University, Gwalior (Org. by Gwalior District Billiards and Snooker Association).

The first game saw an unfinished break of 148 points by Alok which was enough to indicated Alok’s intention and a message to Rupesh that the same is not going to be an easy walk for the world champion. After that Alok produced another break of 123 points in next game but missed a center pot. Utilizing the chance Rupesh produced a break of 99 points to level the match at 1-1.

In the next two games, Alok did not gave much chances to Rupesh and gained 3-1 lead by producing two successive break of 71 and 153 (unfinished). However, Rupesh bounced back in next game with the breaks of 55 and 62 points to narrow the deficit but Alok replied with a break of 112 points from Alok, an enough one to knockout Rupesh Shah 4-2 and to place him in the final.

Alok will now meet current National No.2 B. Bhaskar (Karnataka) who defeated K. Venkatesham of Railways 4-1. Venkatesham managed to win only the game no.2 and had no other option to bow down against Bhaskar.

This is Bhaskar’s second consecutive entry into National Billiards final as last year also he played final against Pankaj Advani.

In 5 to 8 Placing matches, Dhvaj Haria from Gujarat finished as No.5 followed by Manish Jain (West Bengal), Ashok Shandilya (Railways) and Rafath Habib (Railways) as No.6, 7 and 8 respectively.