Advani, Sitwala, Parikh, Kothari in KO round

Twenty-three time World Champion Pankaj Advani continued with his winning spree ousting Venkatesham of RSPB to enter the knockout round at Manisha-Vascon National Billiards and Snooker Championship. Advani beat Venkatesham 3 0(150(119)-69(69), 150(62)- 30, 150(140)-40). Former Asian Billiards Champion Dhruv Sitwala of Petrol Sports Promotion Board scraped past B Jagdesh of Tamil Nadu 3-1 to enter the knockout round. The tournament is organized by BSAM and played at PYC Hindu Gymkhana Billiards room.

Sitwala started with a setback after losing first frame with a huge margin of 40-152 points. However, Sitwala did not let Jagdesh take control of the game and won the second frame 151-107 which included a break of 88 points. He won the third and fourth frame with a comfortable margin of 151-70 and 152-78 wherein the last frame witnessed a break of 99 points. PSPB's Sourav Kothari defeated Gujarat's Partthiv Jhaveri in straight sets 3-0. The first and the third frame included breaks of 110 and 115 respectively.

Results:

Group League round: Senior Billiards:  Group A: S. Srikrishna(PSPB) bt Loukik P. (RSPB) 3-1(150(100)-111 (59), 150(94)-61, 106(78)-150(63), 150-118);

Group A: Amit Sharma(Del) bt V. Susheel(AP) 3-1(152- 111, 147-150, 150-110, 152-85);  Group B: Dhvaj Haria(PSPB) bt I. H. Manudev(KTK) 3-0(150(75)-89, 150(52,52)-71, 150(57,58)- 60);

Group C: Ankit Kariwala(WB) bt Atit Shah(Ker)3-0(151- 62, 151(61)-124, 151-92);  Group C: Dhruv Sitwala(PSPB) bt B. Jagdesh(TN) 3-1(40-152, 151(88)-107(60), 151(54)-70, 152(99)- 78);

Group D: Sourav Kothari(PSPB) bt Parthiv Jhaveri(Guj) 3-0(151(110)-09, 150(55)-81, 155(115)-36);

Group D: Bhuwaneshwar D. (TN) bt Kan Kan Shamsi (UP) 3-2(136-150, 150-110, 88-152(52), 150-115, 150(50)-148);

Group E: Siddharth Parikh(RSPB) bt Shahbaz Khan(RSPB) 3-0(151 -85, 152(87)-75(69), 150(150)-02);

Group F: Rohan Jambusariya(Mah) bt Manmeet Singh(RSPB) 3-1(150(77)-137, 53-150(78), 150(86,64)-34, 150(86,58)-83);

Group F: Manan Chandra(PSPB) bt Subrat Das(Odisha) 3-0(152 (124)-13, 150(97)-23, 151(71)-101);

Group G: B. Bhaskar(KTK) bt Arun Agarwal(Mah) 3-2(112 -151, 116-151, 150-79, 151-15, 151-17);

Group H: Rupesh Shah(PSPB) bt Rafath Habib(RSPB) 3-0 (152-19, 151(96)-63, 151(91)-40);

Group H: Kunal Agarwal(Odisha) bt Siddharth Patni(MP) 3-1(121-150(53), 152-78, 151-135, 150(67)-120).