Agarwal takes out fancied Damani

Maharashtra’s Arun Agarwal caused the biggest upset of the day by beating Brijesh Damani, who had defeated Geet Sethi on his way to the knock-out stage, in the National billiards championship at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana here on Wednesday.

Agarwal rallied from 1-2 to stun West Bengal’s Damani 3-2 (19-152 (58) 150 (84)-139 (67) 82-151 151-148 150-68).

Also making it to the last eight were defending champion Pankaj Advani, former champions Rupesh Shah and Alok Kumar, who accounted for Devendra Joshi, Siddharth Parikh, last year’s runner-up B Bhaskar of Karnataka and Sourav Kothari.

Results: Men: Pre-quarterfinals: Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Shakeel Ahmed (WB) 3-0 (152 (118)-15, 150 (150)-0, 150-30); Rupesh Shah (PSPB) bt K Venkatesham (Rly) 3-0 (151 (65, 63)-89 (52), 152 (95)-50, 150 (67)-139); V Subramanian (Mah) bt Prem Prakash (TN) 3-1 (123-155, 152 (64)-124, 152-98, 150-32); Sourav Kothari (PSPB) bt S Simachalam (Rly) 3-2 (150 (50)-102 (58), 52-151, 152 (112)-7, 102 (54)-151 (54), 152 (25)-18); Arun Agarwal (Mah) bt Brijesh Damani (WB) 3-2 (19-152 (58), 150 (84)-139 (67), 82-151, 151-148, 150-68); Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Devendra Joshi (PSPB) 3-1 (150-132, 150 (96)-77, 117 (76)-151 (123), 152-125 (85)); Siddharth Parikh (Rly) bt Manish Jain (WB) 3-2 (150-137, 82-151, 68-150, 152-91, 150 (89)-83); B Bhaskar (Kar) bt Sarang Shroff (Mah) 3-1 (89-150, 147 (66, 60)-112 (76), 150 (65)-97, 150 (121)-69 (57)).

Women: Billiards: Semifinals: Meenal Thakur (Mah) bt I Lahari (AP) 3-0 (76-48, 78-17, 75-17); Arantxa Sanchis (Mah) bt Varsha Sanjeev (Kar) 3-0 (77-56, 76-67, 77-31).

Quarterfinals: Varsha S bt R Umadevi Nagaraj 2-1 (51-44, 26-52, 51-30); Arantxa S (Mah) bt Chitra Magimairaj (Kar) 2-1 (34-50, 53-27, 51-31); I Lahari bt Judy Walia (Kar) 2-0 (52-17, 50-42); Meenal T bt Neena Praveen (TN) 2-0 (50-29, 51-21).