Defending champion Sourav Kothari sails past Mike Russell to enter second consecutive World Billiards final

Melbourne: Defending champion Sourav Kothari on Friday continued his spectacular show to outperform multiple-time world champion Mike Russell of England in the semi-final and book his second consecutive World Billiards (long-up) final at Melbourne. Such was Kothari’s dominance in the game that with 45 minutes remaining on the clock in the four-hour semi-final, Russell conceded the match apparently due to not having enough time remaining for him to overcome the huge deficit of nearly 600 points. [caption id=“attachment_7485781” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational photo. AFP[/caption] In the end, Kothari prevailed 1090-594 with breaks of 205, 195, 175, 128 and 103, whereas Russell made breaks of 247, 131 and 121. The key highlight of the semi-final which gave Kothari a huge push and rattled Russell was a break of 195 in reply to a break of 247 by virtue of which the Kolkata lad brought parity in the scoreline just before the mid-session interval. From the very beginning in the second session, it was Kothari all the way as he went on a rampage with successive blows of 205, 175 and 103 in a matter of just over an hour to take a huge lead of nearly 600 points, reducing Russell to a mere spectator. Eventually Russell conceded the match with 45 minutes still remaining and complimented Kothari for his extraordinary display of high quality Billiards. In the quarter-final earlier in the day, Kothari sailed past Rob Hall of England 1076-484 with breaks of 141, 135, 242 and 121. On Saturday, Kothari will meet Peter Gilchrist of Singapore in a repeat of last year’s world billiards final. Gilchrist defeated David Causier 1183-1023 in the other semi-final.