Geet’s feat rocks Chapman

The world No 2 Indian bounced back into contention after trailing by nearly 300 points with a triple century break, the match’s highest.

After the turnaround, things rolled smoothly for Sethi’s whose game took on a new fluency lacking in the first session.

He not only nibbled away at the lead but soon overwhelmed Chapman after creating several openings.

Sethi, in his tally of 1,268 had a run of 68, 152, 209, 302, and an unfinished 107 which fetched him Rs 45,000 cheque while Chapman had breaks of 237, 193, 117 in his total of 1192.

Sethi was leading by 133 points at the break in the four-hour final but had a lapse of concentration while striking the cue ball up and down the vertical line.

Chapman grabbed the opportunity, shortened his butt hold and cued 193 to take a lead of 43.

But Sethi, dropping his shoulder to permit more forward thrust of the forearm, cracked 302 on his 23rd visit.

At 1131-1040 ahead Sethi cruised ahead leaving Chapman to sit out sombrely. As the Indian looked like attaining an impregnable position, he missed an easy red at the top corner pocket.

Fortunes continued to fluctuate thereafter and at that stage looked like anybody’s match. Chapman could still have snatched the match at a delicately-poised stage but succumbed to pressure in the last half hour.

Sethi captitalised on the let-offs, returning to dominate the last 15 minutes to amass an unfinished break of 107 as Chapman sensed the contest going out of his grasp.

The Briton played a solid game initially but failed to continue in the same vein thereafter.

Sethi first had a break of 68 in his second visit to the table but was not very confident going for long shots.

In the seventh visit, he had a century break of 153 and improved upon his earlier break with a solid break of 209 in the 13th visit and another break of 114 in his 17th visit.

In his eleventh visit to the table, Chapman had a break of 73 but his best break of the match came in the 13th visit when scored a fine 237 break to take a clear 104 points lead.

He increased the lead to over 200 in his 15th visit to the table with a well compiled 143.

However, pressure began to tell on the briton and his next three significant breaks were of 58, 117 and 62 in the 20th, 22nd and 23rd visits respectively.Sethi played brilliantly and recorded an unfinished 107 break when the buzzer sounded.

Arjuna Award winner and two-time World Amateur Billiards champion, Michael Ferriera was given the Life Time Achievement Award and a cash prize of Rs 50,000 by Alpic Finances, the sole sponsors of the tournament.