Jin halts Mehta in his tracks to win Asian snooker title

Dubai: It turned out to be case of so-near-and-yet-so-far for India's Aditya Mehta as he was beaten by China's Jin Long in the Asian Snooker Championship final here last evening.

Mehta, who had promised so much during the course of the tournament, let go yet another opportunity to conquer his demons, which have plagued him for four finals now.

Three consecutive final defeats in Indian tournaments and now the Asian Championship being yanked out of his hands, courtesy Jin, who lifted his second Asian title, winning the tie by seven frames to three.

Jin, who has survived three close shaves in this tournament, and was virtually shown the door by Yasin Merchant in the pre-quarterfinals, came back from the dead to lift a well-deserved trophy.

The match began with great promise as both players went into the frames firing on all cylinders. Jin struck the first blow to take a one-frame lead. This triggered off some energy switch in Mehta and with the kind of hunger never seen before in his eyes, he kind of willed some balls in to post his first century break of the tournament.

Hitting back

Jin hit back immediately with a 105 effort, which reeked of determination and immense desire. With this kind of aggression from both players, the crowd was expectant of a dogfight. Mehta almost proved it true when he started frame No 4 with a 56 effort. But he suddenly broke down on an easy shot.

From there on, it was Jin all the way.

The look on Jin's face was that of a winner and the game he produced, though not top class, was just enough to keep Mehta at bay. The Indian did have the odd effort to pull back a few more frames, but by then the writing was on the wall.

Moh Keen Ho beat Pankaj Advani 3-2 to take the third place.