Bengaluru: Billiards isn’t a spectator-friendly game. But it was hard to look away as the final of the Long-Up format of the World Billiards championship unfolded at the Karnataka State Billiards Association on Thursday evening. Multiple-time world champion Peter Gilchrist came up with a champion display as he looked to ease to past Sourav Kothari. Three hours into the game Gilchrist had one hand on the trophy table, leading Kothari 1042-293.
Gilchrist, who has won two World Championships in India (1994, 2001), took on Kothari in the final after winning a marathon five-and-a-half hour semifinal against India’s Rupesh Shah. Meanwhile Kothari, who had a relatively easy outing against youngster Dhvaj Haria earlier in the day in their semifinal, was playing in his maiden World Championship final. Kothari looked confident as he opened with a break of 90, but that was all that he was allowed to do as the four-time world champion took over the table starting off with a break off 129, before missing an easy in-off.
But 32-year-old Kothari failed to capitalise on Gilchrist’s blunder as the Singaporean was back on the table. An hour into the final duel, the Singaporean was leading 327-98. From thereon the 48-year-old went on to score the highest break of the tournament of 354 to grab a solid lead of 503 points. But a misjudged shot saw him falter, giving Kothari the scope to get back.
Lagging 500 points behind there wasn’t much the reigning national champion could do as he struggled to get back. With the final reaching its last stage the finalists took a break with the score at 855-205.
Gilchrist wins marathon:
Earlier, in the semifinal Gilchrist was made to slog it out before edging past India’s Rupesh into the final. Shah had the upper hand over Gilchrist at the onset of the match racing away into the lead with early breaks off 95, 137 followed by a 130 with the last two coming on his 7th and 9th visits to the table, giving him a solid lead of over 200 points over Gilchrist.
But the former champion got back into the game with back-to-back breaks of 95, 74 and 84. At his 26th and 27th visit to the table the 48-year-old finally closed the gap with century breaks off 129 and 194 before winning the game with an unfinished break of 86.
In the other semifinal Kothari dominated the 23-year-old Dhvaj Haria winning by 1250-816. Kothari got off the mark from the word go with breaks off 141, 98 and 228. The 32-year-old didn’t concede his lead even once to stroll into the final.
Results:
Semifinals: P Gilchrist bt Rupesh Shah (Ind) 1251 (87, 55, 52, 171, 95, 74, 84, 129, 194, 86) -958 (95, 137, 130, 67, 138, 55, 83); S Kothari bt Dhvaj Haria (Ind) 1250 (141, 98, 68, 228, 60, 50) - 816 (55, 52, 55, 53, 221).
