CHENNAI: After chalking the cue, Sourav Kothari aims the ball by placing his cue between left forefinger and thumb, as the rest of his palm rests on the table. Before the shot, he softly taps the green baize with his left middle-finger. Often, it has been his routine before taking every shot.
It was the same when he striked the last shot in the 15-red mens snooker final of the 90th National Snooker and Billiards Championship in Nehru Indoor Stadium on Sunday. Sourav (PSPB) secured his first national snooker title by stunning Paras Gupta (UP) for 6-2 in a best-of-eleven final. “I’m going to be taking very fond memories of Chennai because I have won the world title, national title and asian title in billiards. However, this is my first national title in snooker. So, it’s going to be forever etched,” said Sourav.
Earlier in this tournament, Sourav beat 26-time IBSF world billiard champion Pankaj Advani in the round of 32 of 15-red men snooker on Friday. It was a sweet revenge for the ace cueist from Kolkata to beat Pankaj who thrashed him in the final of IBSF world billiards championship held in Doha last month. The former world billiard champion, Sourav had a clean sweep (5-0) victory over Md. Hussain (RSPB) in the semifinals where Paras had a tough fight with Shoaib Khan (DEL) to enter the final.
“I knew that Paras is an accomplished player, and he’s a great potter. The fact that he’s there in the finals means he would have beaten some of the top players. So my idea was to keep him tight, and luckily, the safety game was very good. It was just a matter of converting those chances into frame winning opportunities for me. I’m thrilled to be over the line,” he added. The five-hour final was a nail biting game.
The fifth frame was the most crucial one in which Paras was in the lead but Sourav didn’t allow him to take it away. “Sourav was playing a really good safety game and potting was excellent.I play attacking game and I was not able to do well today. Yesterday, I was lucky to win the decider but unfortunately today I was unlucky,” Paras said.
At 13, Sourav followed in the footsteps of his father, former world billiard champion and national chief coach Manoj Kothari. “He is the chief coach of India now and he’s my coach. I owe everything to him. He’s changed my technique, my game, and the way I look at snooker. That played an important role in this nationals for me,” he signed off.