Arantxa shocks top seed

By Pradeep Vijayakar

Vasco: India's 17-year-old Arantxa Sanchis caused the biggest upset of the Vascon-Manisha IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship when she upset the girls top seed, Ramona Belmont, of New Zealand 3-2 at the Bogmallo Beach Resort here on Tuesday. Most of the players were busy with  the draw for the knockout when Arantxa's win was announced.

Arantxa won the the three-and-a half hour match 41-53,60-55,23-69,73-58,50-43. She had earlier beaten teammate Lavanya 3-0 to be sure of a last four place. Now a medal beckons.

A proud father Col EJ Sanchis said: "I named her after the tennis player Arantxa Sanchez after seeing her fighting qualities. Now she has vindicated
me,''

After an unprecedented seven days of league matches, the boys rounds 32 and 16 matches will be completed on Wednesday, followed by the quarters and semis the next.

While five Indians made the cut, there was hope of Arantxa Sanchis making the semi-finals as the lone Indian when she beat Lavanya 3-0 with tremendous fighting spirit when snookered and good potting when she had the chance.

In the boys, Passakorn Suwannawat emerged as the favourite after topping his group losing just one frame. As Asian u-21 champ two years ago he got a ticket to the Main Tour but was relegated last year.

Top seed Passkorn's sheer experience will enable him to tackle the challenge of those seeded below him: Daniel Wells (Wales), Moh Keen Hoo (Malyasia), Pramual Jantad (Thailand), Chinnakrit (Thailand), Anda Zhang (China), Robbie Williams (England) and Kristoff Vermeiren (Belgium).

Among Indians, Delhi lad Pushpender Singh was the most impressive with a 5-1 record in Group A where he was third. Younis Kuchay from Srinagar missed being second having lost to  Singapore's Lim Jia Sheng. The two had the same frame difference, plus-5. Rishab Pandya was third, while  Shravan Mohta and  Shivam Arora were fourth. Four from the eight groups made the knockout.

China's Anda Zhang made the second century break of the event, a 126 against  Dutch player Arya Sohrabi. Malaysian Moh Keen Hoo (116) and Chinnakrit (101) emulated him. In Group E Robbie Williams struck 97 and 99 (which may have been a 135 but for missing the black) against Indian Ajay Bhushan. The 4-0 win pushed David Hogan to second spot on frame difference, both having a  6-1 win-loss record. El Shrbene Yasser of Egypt who had produced quality snooker to beat Williams, lost third place to Malaysian Thor Chuan  on frame difference.