Playing in a tournament along with big names in snooker such as Jimmy White, Yasin Merchant and Geet Sethi must have been a big high for Shivam Arora. However, the 24-year-old potter from Patna is not happy with just making up the numbers in this year’s CCI open invitation snooker tournament.
Arora created a huge upset by beating Geet Sethi 4 frames to 3 (69-8 1-71 57-44 72-2 11-71 70-48) in Group B of the round robin stage. Arora made it to the tournament by winning five qualifying games.
“I have never played against Geet before so I was very nervous, but I made sure that I concentrated on each frame rather than thinking about the outcome of the match. I took advice from an expert who told me to concentrate on putting the white ball in a difficult position for him. Geet being more of a billiards player, I thought it would be difficult for him to take long shots. But he still managed to pot the long shots,” said Arora.
Arora has been representing Bihar for the past eight years. He was ranked No 3 among the Indian Juniors in 2007. He played in the Asian Juniors (under-21) Doha, May 2007 and went on to play in the world under-21 Goa, September 2007.
He went to Wales to pursue his post-graduation at the University of Aberstwyth in 2008 but continued his love affair with the game by taking up the job of a snooker club in the town of Aberstwyth.
He continued to represent his state following his return to India. “I am still an amateur player and involved in my family business as I don’t have a sponsor.”
Results: GROUP A: S Lee (Eng) bt IH Mandev 4-0 : 73(62)-25, 112 (103)-9, 62-30, 66-45; R Pandya bt A Kumar 4-3: 34-66,59-55, 70-10, 6-66, 9-70, 76-46, 62-50. GROUP B: S Arora bt G Sethi 4-2: 69-8, 1-71, 57-44, 72-2, 11-71, 70-48 GROUP C: M Chandra bt J White 4-3: 23-81(53), 76(74)-22, 67-25, 69-1, 4-75(75), 62-71, 72-49. GROUP D: Y Merchant bt R Evans 4-0: 58-46, 99(46)-24, 65(54)-19, 65-29
