India’s Ishpreet Singh Chadha scored a famous 5-4 victory over his hero Mark Selby to clinch a place in the semi-finals of the BetVictor English Open in Brentwood.
Singh Chadha becomes the first player from his country to make the semi-finals of a ranking tournament since Aditya Mehta reached the last four of the 2013 Indian Open.
The Mumbai cueman gave up a career as a professional gamer in the world of E-Sports to chase his dream of competing on the World Snooker Tour. Singh Chadha achieved that goal two years ago when he successfully negotiated Asia/Oceania Q School.
Coming into this week Singh Chadha’s previous best in ranking competition was the last 32. However, wins over Simon Blackwell, Graeme Dott, Jak Jones, Hossein Vafaei, He Guoqiang and now Selby have seen him make a breakthrough run to the last four. He now faces China’s Wu Yize.
It had looked as if it would be a comfortable evening for Singh Chadha when breaks of 73 and 114 helped him into a 4-1 advantage.
Typically, four-time World Champion Selby refused to give up and roared back into contention. Trailing 4-3 and with his opponent starting to falter, Selby piled on the pressure with a break of 96 to force a decider.
Selby had opportunities to complete the comeback in the final frame, but couldn’t convert them. Singh Chadha eventually got his chance after depositing an incredible opening red. He held himself together with a break of 41 to win on the final black.
It was an emotional victory for Chadha, who showed his relief at the table after depositing the last ball. Meanwhile his mother, who has moved to Sheffield with him to pursue his career, was in tears in the stand.
“I was expecting him to come back, even though I was 4-1 up. I knew it was far from over, because I was playing Mark Selby. I have watched so many of his matches. I’ve not missed any of his world finals. I watched every single frame, even though it can get boring when he is playing safety. I just love watching him and he is my favourite snooker player.”
Ishpreet Singh Chadha
Indian Number One
Singh Chadha added: “This will always be in my memory. It is my biggest win so far and my biggest result in a ranking event. I am very happy and I will see what will happen next.
“I think some qualities from gaming have really helped me in snooker. I can handle pressure much better when I’m playing well. I was known to win deciders in India as well and I am happy to have won this game.
“I am so happy I could win in front of my mum. I wouldn’t be playing snooker if it wasn’t for her. She has given me so much freedom to do whatever I want. So much has hard work has gone in. There have been so many sacrifices from her to let me live my life.”
Neil Robertson secured his first semi-final appearance of the season with a 5-1 demolition of world number 17 Barry Hawkins.
The Thunder from Down Under is fighting to force his way back up the rankings after a torrid 23/24 campaign which has caused him to currently be ranked 26th in the world. If he wins the event he will return to the top 16 and dislodge Scotland’s John Higgins.
Hawkins leaves Brentwood having fallen just shy of knocking Higgins out of the top 16 himself, with the four-time World Champion having occupied that elite tier for the first time since 1995. The Hawk needed to win this evening to move up one place in the rankings and dislodge the Scot.
Robertson has already secured some huge wins this week, including a 4-1 defeat of Shaun Murphy. Today’s win sees the 2010 World Champion notch up another impressive result ahead of tomorrow’s semi-final with Chris Wakelin.
“I feel as though this season is a complete reset. I’m forgetting all of the things I’ve done in the past and this is part two of my career now,” said 23-time ranking event winner Robertson.
“Chris is a greatly improved player from a few years ago. He was always around 50 in the world, but he has come on really well. He is getting to the later stages of tournaments more regularly and got a good win over Mark Allen. I expect a really tough contest but it is something I’m going to embrace.”