Vinay P Katrela made capital of the chances that came his way to emerge triumphant in the 9-ball pool State-ranking tournament at the KSBA Hall here on Thursday.

Winner of the title six years ago, Katrela carried far too many guns for the off-colour D Rajkumar en route to a 9-5 win in the final. The lop-sided victory denied Rajkumar a double. The southpaw had annexed the 8-ball pool title last week.

Despite jumping to a quick 5-2 lead, the 25-year-old Katrela never looked in control. He rode purely on the three-time champion's largesse for the better part. With the defending champion going in-off in almost every rack of the race-to-nine finale, a spectator even joked that Rajkumar seemed to be in 'billiards mode'!

Katrela was not complaining, widening the margin with every rack after the two had split the first two. It was only towards the closing stages that Katrela looked in awesome touch. In the 10th, he latched on to a Rajkumar error and played a flawless rack to go 7-3 up. He took the next rack as well when Rajkumar erred, miscuing this time.

Rajkumar then came up with a gritty display but missed the nine to the top right-hand pocket. The nervy Katrela too missed. The southpaw took it on his third attempt and pocketed the 13th rack as well to raise visions of a comeback. But Katrela punished him for a poor safety on one in the 14th.

Sajan Bopanna outclassed Shree Advani 5-1 to finish third. The top four will represent Karnataka in the Nationals in Kolkata in May.

Results: Final: Vinay P Katrela bt D Rajkumar 9-5. Third-place play-off: Sajan Bopanna bt Shree Advani 5-1.
Final standings: Vinay Katrela 1; D Rajkumar 2; Sajan Bopanna 3; Shree Advani 4.