Bongers stuns defending champion Potts at Heyball Worlds

Germany’s Tobias Bongers stunned defending champion Gareth Potts in the second round of the WPA Heyball World Championships in Pune. Pankaj Advani and Shivam Arora stayed alive in the men’s competition, while several Indian women advanced in the winners’ and losers’ brackets.

Hyderabad: While Indian cueists fell short on Thursday, unheralded Tobias Bongers of Germany provided the spark in the $400,000 Apex Sports 3rd WPA Heyball World Championships in Pune on Thursday.

The German stunned reigning champion Gareth Potts of Britain in the men’s second round at the Rajan Khinvasara Billiards and Snooker Academy, housed in the Jairaj Sports & Convention Centre here.

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Bongers, 31, a runner-up at the Junior World 9-ball Pool Championship in 2012, made the most of Potts’ largesse to score a worthy 6-5 victory. With the match poised on a knife’s edge at 5-5, Potts made an elementary blunder in the 11th rack to allow his German rival a free run.

India’s Amee Kamani also could have made the third round, but lost in a shootout (2-3) to Yu Hsuan Fan of Chinese Taipei after the scores were tied 5-5 in regulation time (a 100-minute affair). Like Potts, the Indian player has a chance to come through the losers’ bracket (read as repechage).

Other Indians in action in the winners’ bracket also lost. Shruthi L, who stunned Vidya Pillai in the first round, lost to Australia’s Lyndall Vine 4-6. In the men’s section, Brijesh Damani, Pushpendeer Singh, Sean Davis and Himanshu Jain also lost in the second round.

Varshaa Sanjeev, Keerthan Pandian and Neena Praveen in the women’s section and Paras Gupta in the men’s are still in the fray in the winners’ bracket.

ADVANI STAYS IN HUNT

Earlier, forced into the repechage after his opening-round loss, ace Indian cueist Pankaj Advani stayed in the hunt for a place in the knockout pre-quarters with a comfortable 7-3 win over Michal Turkowski of Poland.

The 28-time World champion in snooker and billiards was dominant from the beginning. Although he had a few dry breaks (the opening shot), he more than made up for that with his superior potting and safety skills.

Striking the ball well and playing a percentage game, Advani had his rival in trouble for the most part of the match before closing out a comfortable victory. He next meets Lee Stephens of Britain.

Meanwhile, Shivam Arora, who is currently busy organising the highest prize money cue sports event in the country, found his rhythm and range today. The highest-ranked Indian in the draw outclassed fellow Indian Abhinav Dhiman 7-0 to keep his own tournament hopes alive.

In the women’s section, four Indians – Natasha Chethan, Vidya Pillai, Anupama Ramachandran and Gianna Rego – kept their hopes alive of advancing to the knockout rounds.

Young Natasha, the bronze medallist at the Junior Worlds two months ago, outclassed Australia’s Leanne Haas 6-1. Gianna Rego was equally emphatic in her 6-1 demolition of Robyn Nikiforos of Zimbabwe.

Anupama, who suffered a heartbreaking shootout defeat to fourth seed April Larson late on Wednesday night, and Vidya scored hard-fought wins over Jiya Sehgal and Tamami Okuda respectively.

Select results (Indians unless mentioned):

Men: Round 2: Tobias Bongers (Ger) bt Gareth Potts (GBR) 6-5; Lee Po-Hsien (Tpe) bt Pushpender Singh 7-3; Karol Skowerski (Pol) bt Sean Davis 7-1; Miquel Silva (Por) bt Brijesh Damani 7-2; Jordan Shepherd (GBR) bt Himanshu Jain 7-3.

Losers’ bracket: Round 1: Pankaj Advani bt Michal Turkowski (Pol) 7-3; Kevin Zarekani (Swe) bt Aarav Sancheti 7-5; Divya Sharma bt Ayoub Bakhtaoui (Mar) 6-5; Gumede Senzo (RSA) bt Sundeep Gulati 6-5; Laxman Rawat bt Ranveer Duggal 6-3; Shivam Arora bt Abhinav Dhiman 7-0; Kamal Chawla bt Uzair Khan 7-1.

Women: Round 2: Kelly Fisher (GBR) bt Hsin-Ju Ho (Tpe) 6-0; Yu Hsuan Fan (Tpe) bt Amee Kamani 5-5 (3-2 shootout); Rebecca Kenna (GBR) bt Byambasuren Sergelenbaatar (Mgl) 6-1; Ganbat Gan-Orkhon (Mgl) bt April Larson (US) 3-3 (shootout); Lyndall Vine (Aus) bt Shruthi L 6-4.

Round 1: April bt Anupama Ramachandran 5-5 (2-0 shootout); Keerthana Pandian bt Elise Qiu (Fra) 6-2; Varshaa Sanjeev bt Helene Krogsgaard Mikkelsen (Den) 6-1.

Losers’ bracket: Round 1: Gianna Rego bt Robyn Nikiforos (Zim) 6-1; Anupama bt Jiya Sehgal 5-3; Lilly Meldrum (Aus) bt C Padmakshe 5-2; Vidya Pillai bt Tamami Okuda (Jpn) 4-3; Natasha Chethan bt Leanne Haas (Aus) 6-1.