Advani begins with impressive victory
Former World Champion Pankaj Advani started his campaign with a century break and a convincing 3-1 win over D Bhuvaneshwaran at the Manisha National Billiards and Snooker Championship at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana here on Sunday.
In the round-robin league for the national billiards championship, Bangalore-lad Advani, representing PSPB, scored a 32-100, 103-22, 100(100)-0, 101-35 win over Tamil Nadu’s Bhuvaneshwaran in a Group ‘A’ league match.
Another former world champion in fray, Geet Sethi, scored two back-to-back wins over Anmoldeep Singh of Punjab 3-0 (101(47)-20, 100(98)-2, 101(59)-24) and Shekar Surve of Railway Sports Board 3-0 (101-31, 101 (78)-24, 102-82(52))
Varsha eyes treble
Meanwhile, Arya Pimpale and defending champion Varsha Sanjeev of Bangalore entered the final of the Sub-junior girls snooker event.
In the semifinals, Arya overcame Lahari Sinaprra of Andhra 2-1, while Varsha scored a 2-0 win over Delhi’s Keerat Bhandal.
Varsha also put herself in line for a triple crown by reaching the final of the junior girls billiards event as she beat Arya 162-85 to set up a clash with Keerat, who defeated Lahari Sinaprra 154-109 in the semifinals.
Results: Senior billiards: Group A: Durga Prasad (RSPB) bt Kankan Shamshi 3-0 (100- 39, 101-61, 101(54)-33); Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Bhuvaneshwaran D (TN) 3-1 (32-100, 103-22, 100(100)-0, 101-35).
Group B: B Bhaskar (Kar) bt Anupam Jha (Bih) 3-0 (102 (69)-12, 100 (57)-2, 101(56)-6); S Simhachalam (RSPB) bt Nitin Kohli (UP) (101-40, 63-100 (54), 100-84, 100-85); Dhvaj Haria (Guj) w/o Ketan Chawla (MP).
Group C: Geet Sethi (Guj) bt Anmoldeep Singh (Pun) 3-0 (101 (47)-20, 100 (98)-2, 101 (59)-24); I V Rajiv (AP) bt Shekhar Surve (RSPB) 3-0 (100-25, 100-44, 100-31); Brijesh Damani (WB) bt V Subramaniam (Mah) 3-2 (102-27, 102-84, 98-102, 80-100,102-68); G Sethi bt Shekhar Surve (RSPB) 3-0 (101-31, 101 (78)-24, 102-82 (52)).
Group D: Arun Agrawal (Mah) bt D Raj Kumar (Kar) 3-1 (100 (49,48)-2, 85-101, 101 (56)-73 (57), 100-2); Prem Prakash (TN) bt Subrat Das (Ori) 3-1 (101-44, 62-102, 101-96, 101(52)-62); Dhruv Sitwala (PSPB) bt MS Reddy (RSPB) (3-0) (102 (52, 50)-30, 100-57, 100-63).
Group E: Manish Jain (WB) bt Rajat Khaneja (Pun) 3-0 (101 (38)-7, 101(59)-31, 102-20); Ashok Shandilya (RSPB) bt Farhad Tengra (Mah) 3-0 (100-82, 104 (85)-12, 100-45); Sourav Kothari (PSPB) bt Ahsan-ul-Haque (Ori) 3-1 (101-87, 102 (53,49)-39, 100(44)-13, 100-56).
Group F: Rupesh Shah (PSPB) bt Sasha Sambi (Kar) 3-0 (101 (62)-65, 101(95)-0, 102(54)-40); Shivam Arora (Bah) bt Siddharth Parikh 3-1 (3-102 (94*), 102(38)-65 (39), 103-61, 104-15).
Group G: Devendra Joshi (PSPB) bt Mridul Das (Asm) 3-0 (100(95)-0, 102(86)-0, 101(63)-12); Shyam Jagtiani (WB) bt Rajesh Sharma (Delhi) 3-0 (101 (75)-21, 101(82)-2, 100-62); Shakeel Ahmed (WB) bt Kunwardeep Singh (Pub) 3-0 (101(44)-49, 102-4, 100-52).
Group H: Rafat Habib (RSPB) bt Himanshu Jain (AP) 3-1 (100-63, 64-101(53), 100-28, 101-37); K Venkatesham (RSPB) bt Parthiv Jhaveri (Guj) 3-2 (80-100, 100 (57)-66, 101 (76)-0, 80-101, 101-66 (57).
