Magical Madan steals show
A strong contender to pick up the inaugural OB Agarwal trophy, PSPB’s Advani sounded a loud warning to his rivals thumping Haryana’s Aseem 4-0 (40-20, 48-0, 63-7, 57-0) for his third consecutive win in Group A at the Karnataka State Billiards Association hall.
On the other hand, the little-known 19-year-old Madan brushed aside Group I top seed IH Manudev of Karnataka 4-2 (7-52, 45-0, 58-0, 38-8, 27-40, 32-23) with a wonderful exhibition of position play and delicate potting. In fact, Madan’s control on the green baize drew praise even from his opponent Manudev, a known exponent of soft touches.
With Madan challenging him in his own game, the contest offered some brilliant moments.
Manudev took the opening frame but his lead was quickly negated in the second when Madan in one break sunk all the six reds before sealing the frame, firing brown to the bottom right pocket.
Madan, who practices with promising State-mate Sandeep Gulati, showed that his second frame exploits were no fluke clearing the table from the third red onwards in addition to the two reds he potted earlier in the third frame . Red hot and oozing with confidence, the second year Computer Science student broke the bunch with the second red and shot into a 33-8 lead with only three balls left on the table in the fourth frame. Manudev opted to continue in hope of finding a snooker but Madan dashed his hopes by firing the blue to top right pocket.
Manudev reduced the lead to 2-3 in the fifth frame and appeared to push the contest to the decider but an error on potting the sixth red gave Madan a chance and the teenager pounced on it to emerge the victor in his second league game.
Advani, who lost just one point in his second game on Tuesday, was the centre of attraction and he didn’t disappoint one bit. A little off-colour in the opening frame, the 24-year-old settled quickly in demolishing Aseem under 30 minutes. Ladies’ favourites Vidya Pilla and Chitra Magimairaj almost sealed their quarterfinal berths, posting second straight wins in convincing fashion.
Men: Group A: Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Aseem (Har) 4-0 (40-20, 48(32)-0, 63(32)-7, 57-0); Divya Sharma (Har) bt Vinay Katrela (Kar) 4-3 (14-64, 29-41, 32-1, 0-50(48), 43-24, 30-14, 44-31).
Group B: Sourav Kothari (PSPB) bt Laxman Rawat (Del) 4-3 (62(25)-1, 37-1, 41-17, 1-48, 17-38, 27-33, 55-10); D Raj Kumar (Kar) bt Neeraj Kumar (Rlys) 4-3 (36-10, 39-8, 16-48, 42(27)–49(31), 38-34, 19-33, 43-28).
Group C: Vaibhav Sharma (Del) bt P Vijay Kumar (TN) 4-2 (15-30, 38-17, 28-35, 50-27, 14-30, 20-28); Vijay Nichani (TN) bt Kamal Chawla (Rlys) 4-3 (25-37, 8-42, 0-50(37), 51-29, 40-2, 31-3, 34-26).
Group D: Rupesh Shah (PSPB) bt Abhishek Soparkar (Mah) 4-0 (38-26, 50(42)-10, 48-22, 41-21); Mundir Sherazi (Kar) bt Sohail Jairaj (Kar) 4-2 (49-18, 20-37, 23-37, 42-11, 40-2, 49-14).
Group E: Brijesh Damani (WB) bt Hariharan KB (Kar) 4-1 (11-48, 42-12, 29-13, 51-12, 37-9); Alok Kumar (Kar) w/o Shivam Arora (Bih); Brijesh Damani (WB) bt Alok Kumar (PSPB) 4-2 (35 (27)-24, 33-27, 64-0, 7-39(34), 3-55(51), 57-8); Hariharan KB (Kar) bt L Nagaraj (Kar) 4-3 (31-54, 30-29, 1-46, 41-44, 28-18, 36-17, 37-29).
Group F: Manan Chandra (PSPB) bt JR Pranit (TN) 4-1 (42-12, 25-33, 61 (40)-0, 49-3); Prashanth Shinde (MP) bt KS Naveen Kumar (Kar) 4-3 (7-57, 31-27, 22-33, 32-7, 15-27, 32-25, 36-16); KS Naveen Kumar (Kar) bt Harish Gandhi (MP) 4-1 (33-25, 52-22, 0-53, 30-14, 61-18); Manan Chandra (PSPB) bt Prashanth Shinde (MP) 4-2 (31-25, 19-45, 28-35, 62-15, 43-10, 57-12).
Group G: Faisal Khan (Rlys) bt B Bhaskar (Kar) 4-3 (27-38, 9-54, 45-0, 0-74 (39), 50-9, 36-21); Manish Jain (WB) bt Sameer Shroff (TN) 4-2 (33-30, 23-26, 44-8, 36-25, 15-43, 46-22); B Bhaskar (Kar) bt Manish Jain (WB) 4-3 (53-1, 13-50, 51-4, 45 (45)-0, 27-50, 12-57, 40-1); Michael Rebello (Kar) bt Sameer Shroff (TN) 4-0 (42-4, 41-18, 57(27)-0, 41-29).
Group H: Lucky Vatnani (AP) bt TV Rajiv (AP) 4-2 (42-16, 18-53, 13-35, 57-13, 34-1, 34-9); Siddharth Parekh (Rlys) bt Abhimanyu Gandhi (Guj) 4-2 (56-13, 44-7, 31-11, 25-39, 13-44, 40-26); Abhimanyu Gandhi (Guj) bt G Sreedhar (AP) 4-2 (18-55, 40-0, 19-68, 42-27, 42-18, 38-29); Siddharth Parekh (Rlys) bt Lucky Vatnani (AP) 4-3 (34-20, 30-24, 33-26, 13-37, 25-35, 13-42, 43-0).
Group I: Ajay Bhushan (Kar) bt MS Arun (Kar) 4-2 (9-48, 19-38, 42-23, 48-19, 38-25, 38-36); Varun Madan (Del) bt IH Manudev (Kar) 4-2 (7-52(42), 45(45)-0, 58(42)-0, 38(33)-8, 27-40(33), 32-23).
Group J: Nadeem Azeez (Kar) bt Ravi Shankar (AP) 4-3 (4-58, 52-12, 38-7, 16-27, 40-32, 1-31, 34-14); Balaji Reddy w/o Pranav Jain.
Group L: Arvind Savur (Kar) bt Kankan Shamshi (MP) 4-1 (48-36, 41(25)-0, 0-45, 40-18, 40(27)-0); Sandeep Gulati (Del) bt Joginder Sharma (Kar) 4-0 (40-28, 39-12, 45-32, 34-23).
Group M: Rishab Pandya (Mah) bt Shahbaaz Adil Khan (PSPB) 4-1 (36-1, 49-35, 23-36, 39-25, 42-17); Anuj Uppal (Del) bt Prem Prakash (TN) 4-2 (9-48, 37-14, 45-16, 12-35, 47-16, 47-7).
Group N: R Girish (Rlys) bt Nishad Chowgle (Mah) 4-0 (32-31, 44(44)-8, 82(37)-0, 41-7); G Mukhopadhyay (WB) bt Vinay Kothari (TN) 4-3 (35-26, 46-11, 6-35, 17-41, 35-13, 22-44, 38-3).
Group O: Shravan Mohte (Mah) bt AR Arjun 4-2 (52-1, 56-16, 0-40, 39-7, 18-34, 45-11); Devendra Joshi (PSPB) bt Nadeem Ahmed (TN) 4-1 (50(33)-7, 43 (34)-8, 39-26, 22-47, 52-0).
Group P: Vijay Goel (Del) bt BV Srinivas Murthy (Kar) 4-1 (40-20, 37-3, 40-12, 17-45, 44-16); Prathamesh Sawant (Mah) bt Madhu Chandra (Kar) 4-3 (64-27, 7-44 (29), 2-30, 13-50, 36-4, 44-7, 37-24).
Ladies: Group A: Meenal Thakur (Mah) bt Neeta Kothari (WB) 3-0 (42-11, 41-15, 43-10); Chitra Magimairaj (Kar) bt Indira Hegde (Kar) 3-0 (53-17, 37-25, 63-7).
Group B: Keerat Bhandal (Del) bt Shilpa Shantappa (Kar) 3-0 (1-0 (frame conceded for arriving late), 32-22, 33-15); Vidya Pillai (TN) bt Indira Gowda (Kar) 3-1 (55(26)-0, 24-35, 45(22)-34, 40(20)-21); Vidya Pillai (TN) bt Keerat Bhandal (Del) 3-1 (47-16, 54-21, 14-25, 41-8); Neeta Sanghvi (Mah) bt Shilpa Shanthappa (Kar) 3-1 (51-42, 12-37, 47-41, 33-22).
Group C: Neena Praveen (TN) bt Poorna (TN) 3-0 (47-16, 52-6, 45-10); Anuja Chandra (PSPB) bt Varsha Sanjeev (Kar) 3-0 (58-15, 37-13, 74-0).
Group D: Arantxa Sanchis (Mah) bt Aradhana Naik (MP) 3-0 (52-16, 41-11, 49-10); Ashwini Puranik (MP) bt Asha (TN) 3-2 (35-15, 31-34, 14-31, 44-5, 30-1).