Bengaluru: There was nothing comedic about these errors, and four youngsters in the spotlight at the Karnataka State Billiards Association on Monday were cognisant of it.
The semifinals of the boys’ Under-17 World Snooker Championship were not a great advertisement for what the International Billiards and Snooker Association is trying to achieve.
Germany’s Christian Richter and Thailand’s Lomnaw Issarangkun made fewer mistakes against Wales’ Riley Powell and Poland’s Michal Szubarczyk, respectively, and qualified for the final.
Richter won 4-2 (66 (60)-11, 4-101(101), 80(46)-21, 31-72, 75-40, 68-65), and Issarangkun was victorious by an identical margin 4-2 (58-27, 30-67, 102(87)-16, 86(57)-32, 34-68, 54-34).
All four of these players have the shots, the control and the vision to make a name for themselves on the pro circuit in the years to come, but Powell and Szubarczyk need to spend more time compartmentalising their emotions.
Richter, for one, was clinical in the most German of ways. Besides setting himself up for big breaks, and he had a few of those in this game, he has a fine touch to go with an interesting perspective of angles on the table.
Issarangkun needs to get a hang of how much pressure to apply on certain shots for he ended up overshooting fairly often, but when he tried to be delicate with it, he ended up fouling on numerous occasions.
Luckily for him, Szubarczyk was not exactly in the best of frames on the day. While he looked good after potting a few balls, he would typically go into a shell as soon as a more defensive strategy was applied by Issarangkun.
Issarangkun didn’t really capitalise on all of Szubarczyk’s failings, but he did just enough to come away with a win.
As for Powell, he was certainly the most aggressive cueist in sight, but he too spent too much time chasing angles that didn’t exist, often setting Richter with easy shots.
Take the sixth frame for instance. Powell had picked up 15 points to catch up to Richter, and had only a black ball to pot to push the game to the decider. It was a cut to the top left corner, easy by most standards. In trying to be emphatic with his stroke, he ended up missing it.
Worse yet, the ball stationed itself in line with the top left pocket for Richter to take aim and complete formalities.
Results: Boys (Under-17): Semifinals: Christian Richter (Ger) bt Riley Powell (Wal) 4-2 (66(60)-11, 04-101(101), 80(46)-21, 31-72, 75-40, 68-65); Lomnaw Issarangkun (Tha) bt Michal Szubarczyk (Pol) 4-2 (58-27, 30-67, 102(87)-16, 86(57)-32, 34-68, 54-34).
Quarterfinals: Richter bt Jabez Naveen Kumar (Ind) 3-0 (70(44)-41, 66-20, 91(67)-10); Powell bt Sky Chan (HKG) 3-1 (77(52)-1, 18-72(48), 93(47,40)-0, 62(40)-17); Szubarczyk bt Ziyad Alqabbani (KSA) 3-1 ((54-6, 53-57, 71-6, 62-34); Issarangkun bt Parham Kazemimoghaddam (Irn) 3-1 (66-35, 36-71, 58-32, 63-42).
Women (Under-21): Chan Wai Lam (HKG) bt Shadi Najafi (Irn) 2-0 (55-4, 76-3); Mohitha RT (Ind) bt Jiya Sehgal (Ind) 2-1 (20-56, 71-43(37), 67-33); Natasha Chethan (Ind) bt Noot Albalawi (KSA) 2-0 (32-2, 60-9); Setayesh Amirazimi (Irn) bt Sameeksha Devan (Ind) 2-1 (43-04, 19-55, 65-22); Snenthra Babu (Ind) bt Manar Albalawi (KSA) 2-0 (51-24, 35-6); Narucha Phoemphul (Tha) bt Melika Najafi (Irn) 2-1 (0-1, 60-41, 48-13); Wai Lam bt Mohitha 2-1 (60-36, 53-56, 49-38); Sehgal bt S Najafi 2-1 (47-56, 65-26, 55-12); Phoemphul bt Aanya 2-0 (64(33)-29, 52-42); M Najafi bt Snenthra 2-1 (64-55, 23-63, 61-22).