Sourav Kothari Takes Out Reventon Masters

The final of the 2019 Reventon Masters was contested between Johl Younger and Sourav Kothari after they surpassed Steve Mifsud and Joe Minici respectively.

It was a much better start for Johl, perhaps from having had a shorter break between matches resulting in him taking the first two frames comfortably. Sourav seemed to be a bit distracted during this stage missing shots that he normally would not.

Nevertheless, he rebounded to be 1-3 at the interval giving himself 15 minutes to reset and break Johl’s momentum.
Perhaps due to the slow pace of play, there was no real opportunity for Sourav to achieve this and watched Johl extend his lead to 5-2 needing only one more to win.

In the post interval frames Johl played very well and dominated the table rarely giving Sourav a chance.
Things changed after 5-2 with Johl looking to close out the match starting to tighten up and Sourav with nothing left to lose started to play more freely.

In the interview afterwards, Sourav even admitted to having thought the match over but through clever tactical play won the next two frames to make it 5-4. By this stage it was about 10pm and both players had had a full day of snooker by then, especially Johl after a long semi.

The spectators that stayed to watch this match were in the prime seat to watch some quality snooker and even down 5-4 the mood was starting to shift in favour of Sourav.

Johl made a couple of mistakes in the tenth trying to do too much and crawl over the line but the result was that Sourav won this frame with a couple of balls to spare. Having entered the decider we knew that anything could happen and that the previous ten meant very little in this do-or-die one frame shootout.

After trading a handful of non-scoring shots each, Sourav scored first with a high 20 break but with most of the balls still in play it was never going to be enough on its own. Johl scored next with a smaller score but Sourav added even more points to his own score soon after.

Johl managed to get in again and started on what should have been the match winner but broke down after getting out of position. Sourav then made Johl pay for his error going on the clear the table and claim his second Reventon title of the year having already won the Reventon Classic in June.

Congratulations to Sourav Kothari for becoming our 2019 Reventon Masters Champion.

I would also like to thank all our referees over the weekend and Larry Eforgan in particular for his role as Head Referee and for choosing to perform this role even on his birthday.

Thanks, must also go to Paul Cosgriff for directing this tournament and ensuring its ultimate success.

A very special thank you to Chris and his team at Reventon for sponsoring this event allowing us all to enjoy the best snooker players Australia has to offer competing against each other.

Kane Chigwidden
Assistant
VBSA