The monkey is finally off Sourav Kothari’s back.
The city-based cueist did all the hard work to win several laurels, including the world billiards title back in 2018. But the national snooker crown remained elusive.
However, launching a tremendous comeback, Kothari fought his way to register his maiden national snooker title in Chennai with a 6-2 win over Paras Gupta of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday.
Geet Sethi and Pankaj Advani are among the very few to win the national championship. Kothari, no doubt, is pleased to enter the elite league.
“I have won a lot of national ‘A’-level titles in snooker. And those same players, who I used to beat at the ‘A’-level tournaments, used to play in the nationals. Yet, I couldn’t win the national snooker title.
“But now that I’ve won the crown, it’s indeed very special to me and more so, because snooker is such a game where you have to be on your toes all the time.
“The monkey’s finally off my back now and I’m also happy I could give a fitting reply to my detractors,” Kothari, who’s now busy with the national billiards, told The Telegraph from Chennai on Monday.
It was a harrowing time for Kothari at the group phase of the competition as he only had an outside chance to qualify for the knockouts. “Such was my condition that I could barely see the ball,” he recalled.
The turnaround, however, began from his last group-stage game against Shaun Davis of Karnataka, whom he beat 4-0. What followed was a Round-of-32 clash with world champion Advani, but Kothari was good enough to seal it 3-1.
“I was clinical against Pankaj, which then took my confidence a few notches higher.”
He also emphasised the role his father and coach Manoj Kothari played during his low phase at the national snooker meet. “I almost broke down, but Dad was steady
and told me to focus on my homework.
“I did shadow practice in the (hotel) room that night for almost 20 minutes. Then
there was no looking back,” Kothari said.
