Sethi exudes class, Advani beats Prakash

By Manuja Veerappa

Bengaluru

Sept. 6: Minutes after losing the point format title to Pankaj Advani on Friday, Geet Sethi said, "This is history, tomorrow will be a new day." True to his words, Sethi put the loss behind him and barely 16 hours later, did what he is best at — finding the sweet spot.

At the IBSF World Billiards Championship (time format), the Khel Ratna awardee came back with renewed vigour and played top class billiards in both his league matches.

At the Karnataka State Billiards Association on Saturday, people watched in awe as Sethi piled breaks of 885 and 425 in his first outing and came back to notch 120, 426, 136, 224, 750, 138 in the second match.

In the process, he beat Ireland’s Aidan Murray 1939-167 and Teik Chong Alan Puan of Singapore 2102-159. Sethi was in his elements as he went about potting with a fluency one associates with the pride and joy of Indian billiards. He started his mammoth breaks spree with a 425 in his first match.

As one watched Sethi play, it was hard not to think about his definition of concentration. In his book Success vs Joy, Sethi defined concentration as "intellect supervising the mind to remain in the present." Indeed he was a picture of concentration as he went about accumulating the 885 break. A missed in-off put breaks on the 47-year-olds scoring.

A visibly pleased Sethi later said, "Once in five years you get into form like this. Deep down when you know you are playing well, it is a great feeling. I don’t mind to say I played exceptional billiards today."

Defending champions and newly crowned point format champion Pankaj Advani began his title quest with a 1735-703 win over compatriot Prem Prakash. Advani’s win included breaks of 307, 109, 120, 161, 16 and 255.