What does it mean for Indian snooker that Aditya Mehta has become the first Indian to make the final of a ranking tournament in the pro circuit?
Is it a premature to get excited, considering that the Indian Open isn't exactly the World Championship? Or could this be a potential watershed for the sport in the country, or at least the start of something big for Mehta?
There are a few factors about Mehta's run that make one optimistically inclined. The Indian Open is one of the season's 13 ranking tournaments, and has featured most of the top-ranked players. Mehta, ranked 71, did not have an easy draw. He had to knock out two World Champions (Peter Ebdon and Mark Williams), and a top-five player (Stephen Maguire, tipped by Ronnie O'Sullivan to be a future World Champion), to say nothing of Pankaj Advani, to make the final.
This may have been his best tour result, but there is reason to think that Mehta will get better. He has already spent a few seasons in the pro circuit and has, arguably, gotten the bedding-in period out of the way. At 28, he will be at his best in the the near future — he has at least three or four years in which he will be at his prime, according to Yasin Merchant, India's first professional snooker player.
Also, Mehta has also been a confidence player, and this performance is sure to have a positive effect on his game. That said, here are the sobering facts. Mehta was blanked in the final, and there was a clear gulf in class between him and World No. 4 Ding Junhui. Except for the final, all rounds of the Indian Open were contested over seven frames, making upsets likelier. Such a feat as Mehta's in the Indian Open will be difficult to replicate in a World Championship, where even the first round is contested over 19 frames.
It may be no coincidence that his best performance has come at home. Replicating it on the tour (if only to tell himself that this was no one-off performance), in an unfamiliar, alien environment, is always going to be tougher.
In just 10 days' time he will play the International Championships, and in a way Mehta will have to prove himself all over again.
Is it a premature to get excited, considering that the Indian Open isn't exactly the World Championship? Or could this be a potential watershed for the sport in the country, or at least the start of something big for Mehta?
There are a few factors about Mehta's run that make one optimistically inclined. The Indian Open is one of the season's 13 ranking tournaments, and has featured most of the top-ranked players. Mehta, ranked 71, did not have an easy draw. He had to knock out two World Champions (Peter Ebdon and Mark Williams), and a top-five player (Stephen Maguire, tipped by Ronnie O'Sullivan to be a future World Champion), to say nothing of Pankaj Advani, to make the final.
This may have been his best tour result, but there is reason to think that Mehta will get better. He has already spent a few seasons in the pro circuit and has, arguably, gotten the bedding-in period out of the way. At 28, he will be at his best in the the near future — he has at least three or four years in which he will be at his prime, according to Yasin Merchant, India's first professional snooker player.
Also, Mehta has also been a confidence player, and this performance is sure to have a positive effect on his game. That said, here are the sobering facts. Mehta was blanked in the final, and there was a clear gulf in class between him and World No. 4 Ding Junhui. Except for the final, all rounds of the Indian Open were contested over seven frames, making upsets likelier. Such a feat as Mehta's in the Indian Open will be difficult to replicate in a World Championship, where even the first round is contested over 19 frames.
It may be no coincidence that his best performance has come at home. Replicating it on the tour (if only to tell himself that this was no one-off performance), in an unfamiliar, alien environment, is always going to be tougher.
In just 10 days' time he will play the International Championships, and in a way Mehta will have to prove himself all over again.
No comments:
Post a Comment