World Junior Snooker Championship: Rahul Williams rises to the occasion

Bengaluru: Rahul Williams’ grit came through when it mattered most as the cueist from Tamil Nadu held on long enough to see off Hong Kong’s Sky Chan in the last-22 stage of the World Men’s (Under-21) Snooker Championship at the Karnataka State Billiards Association (KSBA) on Thursday. 

Rahul won 3-2 (27-79, 58-23, 75-56, 29-62, 71-24) to become the fifth Indian on the day to qualify for the last-16 stage of the event alongside Mahendra Chouhan, Aarav Sancheti, Vibhas K and Ranveer Duggal. 

Off the lot Duggal was the only player who qualified directly to the last-16 stage by finishing on top of Group D. Upon the re-seeding process for the knockouts, Duggal ended up the seventh seed. 

Ten players qualified for the knockouts by topping the group, while the remaining six were identified upon their victories in the last-22 stage. 

Which brings us back to Rahul. The lean 13-year-old looked out of sorts to kick things in the opening frame, but by the second he had a gauge of the pace of the table and started picking off the balls.

One couldn’t get a sense of his break-building skills for the game was heavily reliant on safety, but you could tell that he wasn’t risk averse, and shying away from a pot even if it meant he was out of position from time to time. 

Chan, for his part, showcased his potting ability in picking up the third frame to go 2-1 up. Rahul fought back with steel in his nerves to push the matter to the decider. Once there, he rarely gave Chan a chance on the table, potting with a freedom which very few players expressed on the day.

In a similar vein, the recently-crowned Under-17 World champion Christian Richter fell too fell prey to playing it safe and mucking up a fair few easy pots as he was pushed out of the tournament by Iran’s Shah Sabzi in the deciding frame.

Results: Last-22 stage: Mahendra Chouhan (Ind) bt Srikanth Gadda (Ind) 3-0 (61-17, 78-7, 70 (53)-51); Shahin Sabzi (Irn) bt Christian Richter (Ger) 3-2 (42-66, 0-78 (58), 68-9, 64-26, 85-32); Aarav Sancheti (Ind) bt Tathya Sachdev (Ind) 3-1 (59-70, 43-36, 64-27, 85 (63)-22); Rahul Williams (Ind) bt Sky Chan (HKG) 3-2 (27-79, 58-23, 75-56, 29-62, 71-24); Kwan Chun Wong (HKG) bt Sham Alwin (Ind) 3-0 (75-11, 79-25, 80-8); Vibhas K (Ind) bt Mohamed Musarraf (SL) 3-0 (64-45, 82-10, 67-39).

League stage: Sabzi bt Paul Arthur Jeroch (Ger) 3-1(79-9, 37-40, 61-8, 58-11); Richter bt Mayur Garg (Ind) 3-0 (59-47, 73-19, 79-14); Gadda bt Benyamin Gazavand (Irn) 3-0 (63-20, 73 (61)-11, 63-6); Lomnaw Issarangkun (Tha) bt Krzysztof Czapnik (Pol) 3-0 (78 (55)-49, 69-16, 83 (83)-0); Vibhas bt Hassan Ali Amanulla (SL) 3-0 (111 (58)-19, 51-20, 52-33); Sebastian Milewski (Pol) bt Misagh Dehghani (Irn) 3-0 (94 (50)-12, 69 (65)-30, 76-50); Tathya Sachdev (Ind) bt Kamran Majid (Ind) 3-1 (66-36, 17-65, 60-10, 67-60).