National champion Alok Kumar blanked Praput Chaithanasukan of Thailand 6-0 to win the Asian Billiards Championship at the Olympic Stadium of Kish Island, Iran, on Thursday.
In the process, the Indian became the first cueist to achieve the rare feat of winning both, the Asian billiards and snooker titles.
Earlier, back in 2004 in Jordan, Alok won the Asian snooker title, defeating compatriot and former World Professional Billiards champion Pankaj Advani in the final.
In the best-of-11 games 100 points format final, Alok displayed commendable determination, starting with an immaculate break of 93 on his first visit to the table.
He then rattled his opponent with breaks of 84 and 85 in the second and third games respectively to go ahead 3-0 after just 25 minutes of play.
It was amazing to see the man who had won the 8-ball and 9-ball National pool title only a week back adjusting so well to a completely different game that requires touch play.
Alok again showed his versatility in the fourth, which he won with tactical play.
The fifth game saw the Indian ace unfolding a vast repertoire of stroke-play to recover from a difficult situation and compile yet another good run of 73 points which gave him a 5-0 lead.
In the sixth, though Praput showed signs of staging a recovery by scoring 57 points, it was too little, as Alok came up with a clinically precise 'postman's knock' break of 76, played at the top of the table to win 6-0.
During the course of the tournament, Alok fought hard to brush aside challenges of two former World champions Pankaj Advani (India) and Peter Gilchrist (Singapore) -- in the quarters and semi-finals.
Score: Alok Kumar beat Praput Chaithanasukan 6-0 [101(93)-02, 101(84)-02, 100(85)-06, 100(40)-72, 101(73)-18, 101(76)-57.
