An unheralded Bhopal player -Uzair Khan – almost turned into a giant-killer in the quarterfinal of the Joy Heyball International Open in Chandigarh on Friday. The Indian gave World No. 1 Jack Whelan a mighty scare before losing out to the Britisher. Whelan had to play out of skin to put it past Uzair Khan 6-5 in the quarterfinals.
The Great Britain cueist, who was trailing the Uzair Khan 2-4 in the ‘Race to 9’ match, dug deep into his reserves to prevail in the 100-minute (timed) match and set up a semifinal meeting with the winner of the match between India’s Shivam Arora and David Anderson of South Africa.
Winner of the North American Heyball Open recently, Whelan, after a slow start, found his rhythm and range to dash Uzair’s hopes. The Indian had earlier beaten World Championship runner-up Sina Valizdeh of Iran 6-5 in the pre-quarters.
At the adjacent table, Egypt’s Mohd El Molla edged out National runner-up Kamal Chawla, who came through the losers’ bracket, 7-6 to book his berth in the semifinals. The Egyptian finished the last game in a 50-second run to win it on time.
Late on Thursday night, Yogesh Kumar and Keerthana Pandian, both from Karnataka, went out in the round of 32. While Yogesh lost 2-3 in the shootout to Digvijay Kadian after being level 5-5 in regulation time, Keerthana lost 4-6 to Laxman Rawat.
Results (Indians unless mentioned): QFs: Jack Whelan (GBR) bt Uzair Khan 6-5; Mohd El Molla (Egy) bt Kamal Chawla 7-6. PQFs: Uzair bt Sina Valizdeh (Irn) 6-5; El Molla (Egy) bt Laxman Rawat 9-2; Whelan (GBR) bt Piyush Kushwaha 9-2; Chawla bt Digvijay Kadian 8-3; Gulati bt Jason Theron (RSA) 7-6; S Shrikrishna bt Pramod Kumar 9-4; Arora bt Rafath Habib 9-6; Anderson (RSA) bt Himanshu Jain 8-7.
