Champion cueist Geet Sethi's dream to capture the world championship crown for the eighth time was shattered when he faltered at the last hurdle going down to England's Lee Lagan 5-6 in the final of the IBSF World Billiards championship in Hyderabad on Sunday.
The young Englishman kept his nerves in the see-saw battle to win his maiden title 65-151, 21-152, 150-16, 151-59, 150-142, 152-12, 149-150, 151-21, 86-150, 62-150, 150-32.
Sethi, who was runners-up in the last edition also, made an impressive start winning the first two frames with breaks of 89 and 123 respectively.
But a silly mistake in the third by the Indian gave Lagan a chance to get back into the match which he grabbed splendidly with an unfinished break of 147.
The Englishman then went on to win the next two frames the last with an unfinished 150 break after Sethi had notched up a break of 137 to go into the break with a 3-2 lead.
In the post lunch session, Lagan looked like racing away with the tie as he recorded a 73 point break to take a 4-2 lead.
But Sethi soon found his composure and took advantage of a let-off given by his young opponent, who needed just one point to wrap off the frame, with a break of 47.
Lagan won the next frame relatively easily to take a 5-3 lead.
As the tension reached its peak, the Indian started coming back to his elements and took the ninth and tenth frames to take the tie into the decider.
In the decider, both cueists erred in judging simple canons as the tension mounted. But it was Lagan, who impressed the packed auditorium with his skilful play in wriggling out his cue ball from difficult angles and rolling it to his advantage.
The English amateur champion in 1999, 2001 and 2002, recorded a useful break of 94 to end Sethi's challenge.
Both the players had a smooth ride to the finals as they did not lose a single tie en route to the summit clash.
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