It's a fantastic feeling for snooker champ Kothari

Just nine days after becoming only the second cueist after Australiarsquos Mathew Bolton to achieve a double title snooker and billiards in the Pacific International at Melbourne Indias Sourav Kothari shone on the green baize at the National Sports Club of India NSCI All India Snooker OpenOn Thursday PSPBrsquos Kothari constructed substantial breaks of 70 101 and 89 to tame Biharrsquos Shivam Arora romping to a 53 7812 5719 3458 6340 581 1010 1565 and 982 victorySourav Kothari with the Billiards and Snooker titles he won at the Pacific International Championship in Melbourne PicInstagramIn the final of the Pacific International Billiards Championship Kothari 37 edged past multipletime English champion and current World No2 Rob Hall 15001321 in the Level 5 World Billiards ranking event to win the title When asked which match was the toughest for him in Australia Kothari referred to the final against Hall ldquoTo become only the second one to accomplish the feat feels fantastic Sailing in with a 600point lead in the 1500 match final I was comfortably poised to get to the finishing line Suddenly Hall an absolute worldclass champion made that fabulous break of 400 and followed it up with another 100 and then in no time the entire deficit was covered up and he was in fact leading by 50 points You can imagine the kind of pressure that one could feel when I had such a big lead and everything got erased To be able to go through the finish line in spite of that massive surge was truly satisfying Thats why it was the toughest and perhaps the best victory of the Pacific Billiards for meAlso Read Sania MirzaLucie Hradecka ousted in Round One of WimbledonKothari thanked his dad Manoj for helping him with his cue action before travelling to Australia I was struggling with my game before I went to Australia I was not happy with my technique and certain things were not falling into place I was desperately seeking help from my father who was very kind enough to help me out like he always does I was able to better my cue action and make it more firmer and steadier as I would have liked it to be And yes it just bore fruit beautifully as I managed to win both titles said KothariMeanwhile for the Kolkatabased cueist the one triumph which remains special to him is the 2018 World Billiards Championship win in Leeds where he emulated his father Manoj who won the title in 1990 When I think about becoming the world champion in 2018 28 years after my dads win gives me goosebumps For a son to emulate his father a legendary figure is quite rare For me it was one of the biggest victories of my life In the final I beat Peter Gilchrist of Singapore 1134944 In the semis I was up against David Causier sixtime world and defending champion from England Being 500 points down and to beat him with that kind of deficit is one of the highlights of my career he explained