Advani,Kothari start with easy wins
Pankaj Advani defeated Jaka Kurniawan of Indonesia 4-1 on the second day of the ONGC 16th Asian Billiards championship being played in Chandigarh on Sunday. The 18th U-21 Asian Snooker Championship and Ladies Asian Snooker Championship are also being held along with the main event.
Advani started well and took the first frame 102-0 with a break of 72.
Kurniawan came back in the second hitting a break of 92 to win 102-0 and tie the match. Thereafter Advani won the next three frames 100-2, 102-8, 101-3.
Other Indians in fray— defending champion Dhruv Sitwala, Alok Kumar, Sourav Kothari along with Siddharth Parikh—also won their matches.
Sitwala made a short work of Marlando Sihombing of Indonesia 4-0, while Alok Kumar registered a hard-fought 4-3 win over Chit Ko Ko.
Earlier, Punjab governor and UT administrator VP Singh Badnore inaugurated the event. He also announced setting up of an academy for cue sports.
Results: Asian Billiards: Praput C (THA) bt Brijesh Damani (IND) 4-0 (101(66)-66, 100(51)-74, 100(85)-23, 102(102)-29); Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Jaka Kurniawan (INA) 4-1 (102(72)-05, 00-102(92), 100(71)-02, 102(69)-08, 101(93)- 3); Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt Marlando Sihombing (INA) 4-0 (100-33, 101-50, 101(75)-35, 102(89)-32); Alok Kumar (IND) bt Chit Ko Ko (MYN) 4-3 (101-42, 101-27, 04-100(100), 31-100(82), 26-82, 102(91)- 6, 101(101)-0); Sourav Kothari (IND) bt Thawat S (THA) 4-1 (100-96, 100-55, 100(62)-18, 59-100, 100-34); Siddharth Parikh (IND) bt Min Sithu Tun (MYN) 4-3 (101(70)-87, 10-101(77), 00-102(102), 102(64)-84(67),45-101(68), 100(79)-16, 102(67)-23).