Kothari has it easy against Cosker; Chawla, Natasha lose

Chengdu (China), Aug 10 (PTI) National champion Sourav Kothari’s victory was the lone bright spot for India on the opening day of the cue sports competition at the World Games here on Sunday.

Kothari hardly broke sweat in his 2-0 annihilation of Great Britain’s Zac Cosker in men’s snooker.

After having kept his young rival on a tight leash with his brilliant safety play, the Indian ace rifled in a gritty break of 57 in the next to come through in straight frames.

Kothari takes on another Briton, Daryll Hill, in his final Group ‘C’ match. The top two players from the group advance to the knockout quarterfinals.

Kamal Chawla went down 0-2 to former IBSF World champion Ali Alobaidli of Qatar in a Group ‘D’ match.

Chawla next takes on the formidable Michael Georgiou in a must-win game.

In the women’s 6-red snooker, India’s Natasha Chethan, the reigning IBSF World U-21 champion, lost both her Group ‘A’ matches.

Natasha went down fighting 1-2 to Hong Kong China’s So Man Yan in the first session, and lost 0-2 to Thailand’s Narucha Phoemphul in the evening section.

Results: Men: Snooker: Sourav Kothari beat Zac Cosker (GBR) 2-0 (91-59, 59 (57) -16); Ali Alobaidli (Qat) beat Kamal Chawla 2-0 (63-37, 58-14).

Women: 6-red snooker: So Man Yan (HKC) beat Natasha Chethan 2-1 (2-39, 42-8, 40-10); Narucha Phoemphul (Tha) beat Natasha Chethan 2-0 (33-7, 49-12). PTI UNG AT AT