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Shandilya, Rupesh Shah score

Bill McArthur in Madras

If big-break building was at a premium on the opening day of the Florsheim World Professional Billiards Championship on Tuesday, it could safely be said that a semblance if normalcy, if not excitement, was restored as the eight-to-sixteen ranked players got down to showing off their table etiquette at the Taj Connemara Hotel here on Wednesday.

Ashok Shandilya, the world No. 9 who has slipped in the rankings since he gave four ranking tournaments the miss last year "due to financial constraints", started the ball rolling. Two century runs - there was just a solitary perfect 100 by Arun Agarwal in five matches on the opening day - and a bagful of half-century breaks saw him cruise past compatriot Mukesh Rehani into the third round.

Yet, it was certainly not Shandilya at his best. The portly cueist from Mumbai looked good for more than two three-figure runs on many more occasions. But he was unable to stay focussed, cracking in the 70s quite often, and once on 99 on the simplest of shots. He will have to shed his recklessness if he is to score his maiden triumph over former world No. 2 Peter Gilchrist whom he meets in the next round.

Simultaneously, on the second table, billiards buffs were served what was expected as well as what was not. The world No. 12, Ian Williamson, was on view and, initially, one got what can be expected when the Englishman is in play - boredom aplenty and a paucity of excitement. It endorsed the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association's (WPBSA) decision to do away with the four-hour format and experiment with the 1000-up format here.

While Shandilya took exactly two-and-a-half hours to breast the tape (1001-554), Williamson's match against Balchandra Bhaskar, India's 24th ranked player, had to be halted after three-and-a-half hours, in order to stick to the schedule, with the score reading 609-469 in favour of the Indian. The match will be resumed after the last session of the day, which could well be around 2130 hrs (IST).

But, wonder of wonders, Williamson, when pushed against the wall, uncorked an unfinished 124-break in a little over 15 minutes which has placed him within striking distance of Bhaskar when the match and the break resumes.

Later in the day, Peter Sheehan, the tall 24-year-old pro from Widnes in England, showed why he is being rated as a future top four prospect. He unleashed a solid display of all-round billiards, racing to a 1001-494 triumph over India's Aditya Goenka on a quickfire double century (240) run which actually flattened Goenka.

A 121 midway through the two-hour 50-minute contest virtually sealed the issue for the Englishman, whose final flourish was an unfinished 96-run.

Sheehan's was the first double hundred break. He meets veteran Aussie Robby Foldvari in the third round tomorrow.

While Sheehan was disposing off Goenka in short shrift, another Indian stalwart of yesteryear, Subhash Agarwal, the world no. 13, was being packed off in much the same fashion as his nemisis of the seventies and eighties, Michael Ferreira, by Rupesh Shah, another young Indian upstart who is ranked nine places below him on the world rankings.

Shah, riding on breaks of 102, 127, 96, 55 and 147, easily squashed the challenge of the former world amateur No. 2, at 1000-768, the exercise lasting a little under four hours.

Veteran Subhash appeared to find his touch a trifle too late. For, breaks of 78, 62 and 127 in three of his last six visits to the table, only served to reduce the deficit and the humiliation.