Businessman plays pivotal role in securing victory in pool championships

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BUSINESSMAN K. Sathiya played a pivotal in securing the team event victory for Home N Away 8, Sri Hartamas at the end of the three-day Dewar’s Super League British Pool Championships grand finals at Centro in KL Sentral recently.

Although his campaign in the individual men’s singles ended in the quarter-finals, the 36-year-old provided the joy and contributed two crucial points as they came from behind to register a hard-fought 3-2 won over Dinty’s Oldies, Bangsar in the final.

It was a neck-to-neck race in the match up decided over five matches before Sathiya powered his side home in the final two matches.

Watching intently: The audience who turned up for the Dewar’s Super League British Pool Championship 2009 Grand Finals.

In the men’s doubles Sathiya paired up with Mohd Irwan Ibrahim and the duo overcame the combination of Alex Ng Siew Cheng-K.K. Tan 2-1 to level the tie at 2-2 and stretch the final down to the wire.

He went on to subdue Kevin Kwan Yue Mun in the second men’s singles in style with an untroubled 2-0 scoreline and gave his supporters the reason to celebrate.

Going into the decider, Sathiya said he was confident of delivering against his challenger.

Deep concentration: Losing semi-finalist Pamela Yap in action.

“My opponent offered slight resistance in the first frame as he attempted to stay in contention. It was the first time I went up against him. But, I kept my cool and stayed focus to produce the winning point,” he added.

The victorious Home N Away pocketed RM10,000 for the feat while Dinty’s settled for RM5,000.

In the opening men’s singles earlier, Dinty’s got off to a good start with Ng avenging his defeat in the last 16 stage of the individual contest against Sham Azad Abd with a convincing 2-0 margin.

“He was a better performer on the day in the previous meeting. It was a sweet victory to upstage him today,” Ng said.

However, siblings Kevin-Janice Kwan Pui Yee failed to keep the momentum going as they went down to Sham Azad-Emy Elliana Zainal Baahrin 2-3 in the mixed doubles. The 25-year-old Janice gave Dinty’s a short-lived lead with her 2-0 win against Emy Elliana in the women’s singles.

“We committed several mistakes in the mixed doubles. As we struggled to slot the black ball, we had a slip up in the first frame and were unlucky in the third frame. Both frames could have gone either way,” said Janice.

The other two semi-finalists - Caribbean, Damansara Utama and Damansara Uptown Bulls - in the team event also received RM2,500 each.

RESULTS

> TEAM

Final: Home N Away 8, Sri Hartamas bt Dinty’s Oldies, Bangsar 3-2

- First Men’s Singles: Sham Azad Abd Aziz lost to Alex Ng Siew Ching 0-2

- Mixed Doubles: Sham Azad-Emy Elliana Zainal Baahrin bt Kevin Kwan Yue Mun-Janice Kwan Pui Yee 2-1

- Women’s Singles: Emy Elliana lost to Janice Kwan 0-2

- Men’s Doubles: K. Sathiya-Mohd Irwan Ibrahim bt Ng-K.K. Tan 2-1

- Second Men’s Singles: Sathiya bt Kevin Kwan 2-0

> WOMEN’S

- Semi-finals: Lee Sook Kwan (Caribbean, Kuchai Lama) bt Pamela Yap Siew Mei (Shooters, Damansara Perdana) 3-2; Tengku Adora Azuana (Home N Away, Sri Hartamas) bt Emy Elliana 3-2

- Final: Lee bt Tengku Adora 3-2

> MEN’S

- Semi-finals: Koh Ben Yong (Vision Good, Kuchai Lama) bt Vincent Ng (Golden Sun, Kuchai Lama) 3-2; K.K. Tan bt Low Tuck Yuh (Channel, Damansara Utama) 3-0

- Final: Koh bt K.K Tan 3-2