Advani continues winning spree, enters quarters
CHANDIGARH: Pankaj Advani stamped his class in the tournament defeating in-form Sourav Kothari 4-0 in the ONGC 16th Asian Billiards championship being played in Chandigarh on Monday. The 18th under-21 Asian Snooker Championship and Ladies Asian Snooker Championship are also being held along with the main event.
Kothari, who recently made a clean sweep in the Petroleum inter-unit billiards and snooker tournament, was in no match for Advani. Both players were shaky to start off with as big breaks eluded them. Advani none the less took the first frame 100-26 and in the second surged to a 2-0 lead winning 100-2. The third frame saw a battle of nerves with Advani coming out triumphant 100-99. By the fourth frame, Advani one win away from clinching the match came in his elements winning 102-4 with a break of 102. In other matches, Siddharth Parikh lost to Praprut Chaithanasakum of Thailand 4-2, while Rupesh Shah got the better off Brijesh Damani 4-1. Thailand’s Thawat Sujaritthurakarn defeated Hwang Chulho of South Korea 4-2. Chit Ko Ko of Myanmar defeated Marlando Sihombing of Indonesia 4-2. In the last billiards match, Bhaskar Balachandra outclassed Suriya Suwanasingh of Thailand 4-0.
The players who made it to the quarterfinals in billiards are— Dhruv Sitwala, Alok Kumar, Bhaskar Balachandran, Nay Thway zoo, Pankaj Advani, Praput Chaithanasakun and Rupesh Shah.
In the under-21 snooker, despite losing a close match 3-4 Yun Fung Tam became the third Hong Kong player from his country to make a century break. Yun Fung Tam made a break of 125 in the fourth frame and a 77 in the sixth frame but eventually lost the match to Mohammed Naseem Akhtar from Pakistan.