MUMBAI, June 8: Varun Taneja, who reached the finals of both CCI Open billiards and snooker events, did not seem satisfied with his achievements and almost pulled off a major upset on the opening day of the 3rd Alpic Om Agrawal Billiards and Snooker Tournament at the Cricket Club of India today.

A last-minute blemish saw Delhi-based Taneja lose a tight match against the 1995 World Professional Billiard runner-up Devendra Joshi by 13 points. The final score read 741-728 in favour of the Mumbai cueist.

Joshi, who got breaks of 68, 84, 63, 55, 88 and 73, was leading by 26 points at 727-701 when Taneja came on to record a break of 27 to lead by a point.

That break was small, but it almost turned out to be significant enough to give Taneja a thrilling win, until he faltered with just a minute remaining in the match.

Towards the end of the break, he potted the white and then played a cannon on the red to snatch that lead. But after the cannon, he lost position, when he should have played a red in-off. Had Taneja done that, the match could have tilted in his favour. With barely a minute remaining, Joshi came on to pot a long yellow and then scored on the red to win the closest match of the opening day.

Joshi, who almost paid the price for being complacent, was in command with a 300 points lead early in the match. Taneja, who recorded breaks of 57, 53, 59 and 67, did not look like posing a threat but he made small but significant breaks to close in on his accomplished opponent.

In similar fashion, veteran Subhash Agrawal prevailed over Satish Amarnath 509-484. Agrawal had breaks of 63 and 98, while Amarnath recorded 64 and 132.A break of 402 by former world No 1 Geet Sethi was the feature of his 1163-563 win over another former World billiards champion Manoj Kothari.

Meanwhile, M Jayaram and Mukesh Rehani have withdrawn from the tournament.The tournament was inaugurated by former World champion Michael Ferreira.Ferreira was also the recepient of the prestigious Alpic Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution toward the sport. He received a cash prize of Rs 50,000.

RESULTS

GROUP A: Arun Agrawal (99, 118, 50, 113, 64) bt Manoj Kothari (70, 91, 60) 822-519; Nalin Patel (94, 55, 82, 60, 172, 65, 57, 85) bt Jatinder Daver (100, 61) 844-403; Geet Sethi (52, 130, 50, 142, 58, 402, 117) bt Manoj Kothari (51, 92, 69) 1163-563; Nalin Patel (75, 222, 54) bt Arun Agrawal (65, 105, 74) 713-545

GROUP B: Sonic Multani (93, 154, 172, 147) bt Chirag Ramakrishnan (51, 61, 101) 988-551; Sonic Multani (82, 255, 159) bt B Bhaskar (88, 71, 88, 96) 756-568; Roxton Chapman (342, 280, 179) bt Chirag Ramakrishnan 1196-136

GROUP C: Varun Taneja (87, 52) bt Michael Ferreira 671-567; Devendra Joshi (68, 84, 63, 55, 88, 73) bt Varun Taneja (57, 53, 59, 67) 741-728; Devendra Joshi (51, 96, 58, 71) bt Alok Kumar (144, 83) 779-567

GROUP D: Subhash Agrawal (56, 93, 56, 95, 76) bt Kamal Tulshan (53, 50) 805-518; Ashok Shandilya (52, 62, 65, 70, 117) bt Chandu Shah (92, 53, 59, 50) 869-453; Subhash Agrawal (63, 98) bt Satish Amarnath (64, 132) 509-484; Ashok Shandilya (77, 322, 132) bt Kamal Tulshan (53, 60, 93) 966-515

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.