The Indian Open snooker championship starts from Monday here in the Capital with the eyes on Indian sensation Pankaj Advani and world number one Neil Robertson who are hot favourites.
The five-day tournament to be played at the le Meridien Hotel will also witness four former world champions (John Higgins (1998, 2007, ‘09, ‘11), Mark Williams (2000, ‘03), Ken Doherty (1997) and Peter Ebdon (2002) rubbing shoulders with a lot of seasoned professionals.
For India, 70th ranked Advani and 72nd ranked and Colombia World Games champion Aditya Mehta will shoulder the responsibility. Apart from the duo, six other qualifiers will also compete.
While Advani will face Marcus Campell in the first round, Mehta will play Ebdon.However, the hot favourite will be 31-year-old Australian Robertson who has been in very good form this season.
“I have never been to India before so I’m excited. I like the format with best of seven matches because it will produce fast and dramatic matches. You can’t think too much about the fact that the matches are short, all you can do is to try to get off to a good start,” Robertson had told The Pioneer in an email interview.
“I have had a good start to this season. I won the Wuxi Classic ranking event and got to the final of the Australian Open, though I was disappointed to lose that to Marco Fu. I am giving it 100 per cent in every tournament and I have been consistent, which means that someone has to play well to beat me.
Robertson feels that he has improved on break building and as a result, he is becoming a better player.
“I’m still improving as a player. last week I made four centuries in the International Championship qualifiers and another four in my first match at the Ruhr Open. Break-building was the weakest part of my game in the past, but now it’s one of the best. I don’t know why I’m still getting better, maybe it’s because I didn’t start playing snooker until I was 15 or 16,” he added.
“I am number one in the world which is a great achievement and I want to stay there as long as I can. But I’m not going to play in every tournament to try to stay on top. I have a young son and I have to find a balance between snooker and spending some time at home with my family. It’s a lot easier for the players who don’t have kids,” he explained.
Robertson said that he is quite impressed with the talents of Advani and Mehta.
Other players in the fray in the 3,00,000 pound tournament would be China’s 26-year old Ding Junhui and Hong Kong’s world number nine Marco Fu.