Pune Former world number 3 and Six Red Snooker champion Shivam Arora, from Pune, suffered a scare in the best of nine frames pre-quarter-final round against fellow Pune opponent Saad Sayed in the Billiards and Snooker Association of Maharashtra (BSAM) 6 Red Snooker State Selection Tournament 2019 at the Poona Club Billiards Room on Monday.
Arora went 0-4 down in the first four frames only to make a comeback, which included a break of 50 points, to win the match 5-4 and confirm his presence in the quarter-finals. Sayed capitalised on Arora’s complacent strokes in the first four frames, but Arora recovered just in time to eliminate the unseeded 24-year-old.
The first frame commenced with sixth seed Arora testing the waters while Sayed went all out, taking every opportunity that fell to him from the minute the cue ball was placed on the baulk line. Barring a few missed opportunities to pot, Sayed was miles ahead of Arora in the opening frame as Arora could only manage to win four points from it. Initially, it seemed like Arora was merely testing his opponent, but after the match the 33-year-old confirmed that it was due to the recent two-year sabbatical and a back problem due to which he struggled. Sayed won the first frame with a convincing score of 36-4.
Sayed, who works in a corporate and does not train at a snooker academy, managed to get numerous strokes on point. However, in the second frame, both players struggled to pot the balls. Sayed was the first one to recover as he used the top-spin to pot a couple of reds and later played a sublime swerve to pocket the yellow. Arora recovered in the final stages of the second frame to close the gap, but it was too little too late for that frame as he ended up losing 32-27.
{{/usCountry}}Sayed, who works in a corporate and does not train at a snooker academy, managed to get numerous strokes on point. However, in the second frame, both players struggled to pot the balls. Sayed was the first one to recover as he used the top-spin to pot a couple of reds and later played a sublime swerve to pocket the yellow. Arora recovered in the final stages of the second frame to close the gap, but it was too little too late for that frame as he ended up losing 32-27.
{{/usCountry}}The unseeded Sayed, who seemed a tad nervy in the first frame, was aiming to wrap the match up in straight frames. The 24-year-old looked confident in the third frame of the match as he attempted tricky and challenging strokes. Sayed tried his luck with a swerve shot to pot the last red, but this time he was unlucky. A few moments later, he potted the green on a magnificent rebound into the left side-pocket and eventually extended his lead to 3-0 after winning the third successive frame.
Frustration was evident on Arora’s face as his strokes saw the balls bouncing off the pocket cushions and stay out, allowing Sayed to nab easy points. In the fourth frame, yet again, both players had a tough time trying to get the balls in the pockets. Arora was trailing yet again as Sayed propelled himself into an early 7-0 lead. Arora did manage to keep calm and recovered to make it 7-12. A couple of fouls committed by Sayed gifted crucial points to Arora, but they were not enough to win the frame as Sayed, yet again, won the frame and now had a golden opportunity to end the match in the fifth frame.
On the verge of being eliminated with the most humiliating scoreline, Arora knew he could not commit any more mistakes. Strokes of conviction helped Arora launch himself into the lead in the fifth frame, as Sayed let his guard down. The tables started to turn as Sayed misplaced a few of his strokes and Arora made no mistake in capitalising on silly mistakes to deny the 24-year-old a clean sweep. Arora finally managed to win his first frame of the match at the most crucial point. The danger of elimination still lurked as Sayed needed just one victorious frame to win the match.
In the following frame, Sayed tried to keep the momentum under his palm as he launched himself into a 9-0 lead. Arora failed to pot a couple of reds and was evidently agitated with himself. In an effort to end the match early, Sayed lost focus and misplaced numerous strikes as Arora came from 9-0 down to lead 9-12. Towards the end of the sixth frame, Sayed refrained from playing tricky shots, while Arora grew confident was seen swerving the ball all over the baize, as he cleared the table with a 18-41 at the end of the frame.
The momentum was with Arora in the last three frames as a shaky Sayed only managed to take a single point from the last two. Arora got his shots correct and managed to win the seventh frame with some amazing stun shots which almost cleared the table, handing Arora a 01-37 win. Parity was restored in the eight frame in which Sayed did not get a chance to pot a single ball. Arora managed to bag a break of 50 points as he won the eight frame with a staggering score of 0-84.
In the penultimate frame, Sayed yet again failed to pot a single ball as the momentum completely swayed away from him and in favour of the former world number 3, who made no mistake in finishing the match with a 48-point break to win the final frame 0-48 and complete an astounding comeback to win the match 4-5. Arora will now gear up for the quarter-final stage which will be played on Tuesday.
Sayed said, “In the first four frames, I played really well. I was dominating, but then I just somehow lost momentum and missed easy chances. Due to the missed chances, I was not able to concentrate and hence I lost focus in the last five frames. He [Shivam Arora] played really well in the final five frames. I play very rarely and only on the weekends at Corner Pocket, because I work in a corporate. I play just for two hours on weekends and I feel that is not enough to compete against good players and take the state title, but I still played well. I was undefeated in the league phase of the tournament and that was a very good run. Unfortunately, the run ended today, but I will come back stronger.”
“It was very difficult today. Saad [Sayed] is a very underrated player of the city. He is one of the best players and I really admire his game. When he is in the zone, he is flawless and it is difficult to beat him. I have been away from the game for the last ten days, I travelled yesterday and I did not get any sleep, so I am nowhere in my zone and I was lucky to win today. When I was 4-0 down, I just thought I’ll play it ball-by-ball and frame-by-frame, not thinking about the result,” said Arora.
Results:
Knockout Round (best of 9 frames):
7-Shahbaz Khan (Mumbai) bt Suraj Rathi (Pune) 5-3 (42-32, 53-22, 32-09, 00-48, 52-04, 26-36, 54(36)-00)
6-Shivam Arora (Pune) bt Saad Sayed (Pune) 5-4 (04-36, 27-32, 08-25, 22-31, 32-04, 41-18, 37-01, 84(50)-00, 48(48)-00)
Abhishek Bora (Pune) bt 8-Rajeev Sharma (Mumbai) 5-0 (57-26, 48-20, 40-19, 35-08, 47-36)
Madhav Joshi (Pune) bt 4-Rohan Sakalkar (Pune) 5-1 (14-51, 52-05, 32-27, 37-16, 46-04, 40-37)
3-Taaha Khan (Pune) bt Rohan Kothari (Pune) 5-3 (08-41, 38-27, 00-53(53), 36-04, 65-22, 40-00, 23-35, 44-04)