Former women’s World No 1 Kelly Fisher displayed her fighting spirit a year ago in Mumbai by beating former national champion Alok Kumar. The English woman rallied from a 3-9 deficit to overcome Kumar 15-12 to win the Otters Club All India 9-Ball Pool tournament last September.
Kelly still remembers the win. She says, “I was visiting the country after 13 years. I was invited for 9-Ball pool tournament in Mumbai and I won it. It was an all Indian open for men, so I am all Indian champion in pool,” quipped Kelly, who celebrated her 39th birthday during her final on Friday in Ahmedabad. “I had taken on men in mixed doubles and it was a rarity for me to take on men in singles in a competition,” she recalled.
Kelly was the Delhi Dons icon player in which she was pitted against top men’s players. She had not played snooker since 14 years and still took on iconic players like Pankaj Advani and even defeated fancied Welsh player Darren Morgan twice and Amir Sarkhosh once in Icon Singles Snooker.
Her team reached the final in the five-team inaugural seven-day event before losing to champions Gujarat Kings. Cue Slam was oganised by Sportzlive in association with Billiards and Snooker Federation of India that concluded at Rajpath Club in Ahmedabad. “I was nervous and uneasy initially to take on men icon players as I had not played snooker since 2003. But everything fell in place and I was playing pretty decent and I am happy,” she said.
Kelly had made multiple visits to Mumbai before 2003 as a former World No 1 snooker specialist from UK. And 13 years later, she came to city as an USA-based pool specialist. “My first two visits to Delhi in 1993 and 1994 for World Ladies Snooker championships. Later Cricket Club of India invited me three-four times for competitions in Mumbai. Last time I came to Mumbai in 2002-03 for snooker,” remembers Kelly who has battled the odds and fought health ailments to keep smiling and sizzle on the green baize.
Kelly who was dominating the women’s snooker championships had to switch to pool and moved to the United States to play on the Women’s Professional Billiard Association (WPBA) nine-ball tour. In 2003 Fisher won the first IBSF World Ladies’ Championship but the sport’s governing body withdrew its support for the women’s game in same year, abandoning all major women tournaments.
The Yorkshire woman settled into 9-Ball Pool and eventually attained No. 1 ranking in world women’s pool in August 2008, winning the US Open Championship. As everything was going smooth, she developed health ailments but that didn’t deter her from going strong on the table. She underwent open-heart surgery and later she was reportedly carrying the BRCA 2, BRIP 1 mutuated genes which needed surgery.
Kelly observed that snooker is coming up well in India but pool is not that popular yet. “Vidya Pillai has been around for a while. Amee Kamani looks fantastic in snooker. But in 9-ball pool, not many women’s player are there. Although I have seen a few coming to international events in China and Philippines. Cue Slam is perfect to popularise both snooker and pool in India. Many new players will come through,” she said.
