The Mumbai lad hopes that with top cueists like Yasin Merchant, Devendra Joshi, Alok Kumar, Manan Chandra and Aditya Mehta among others in fray, a creditable show in this event will go a long way in establishing his name among best in the country.

“I feel it’s an honour to have been invited to participate in this very prestigious event. In fact, I’ve been going through intense training for sometime now to prepare for this event,” says 22-year-old Kandivali resident. “By putting up a good show, I want to justify the invitation extended to me,” added Pandya.

Pandya has been spending nearly six-hours every day in practice at the Bombay Gymkhana. “My training involves both solo and normal frame practicing. I have been trying to improve cueing, practicing long pots and break building,” said Pandya who had reached the quarter-finals at the last nationals held in Indore.

“By putting long hours in practice, I’m just trying to build confidence in choosing and shot making. This will help me avoid getting double minded in certain situations during shot selections. When you are short of practice, you usually tend to get confused while at the table,” points out Pandya, who was shocked in the very first round of the Wilson Jones snooker championship held at PJ Hindu Gymkhana last month. “I was up against a player with a handicap of +60. I was playing well, but lost the decider on a black,” he informed.

But bowing out early in fact turned out to be blessing in disguise for Pandya who went to play an ATC team snooker challenge 2008 held at the PYC Gymkhana in Pune where his team Cuesportsindia.com, which also included Kamal Chawla, Neeraj Kumar and Abhisek Raj, defeated star-studded Strachan Champs in the final. “There were big stars like Geet Sethi, Devendra Joshi, Faizal Khan and R Girish in that team. Beating that team for crown was a big morale booster for me,” states Pandya, who now wants to capitalize on that win. “I feel I’ve done my preparation work and now it all depends on how the tournament progresses for me.”

Has Pandya devised any particular tactic for this event?