Pankaj Advani, Sourav Kothari Win on Opening Day of National Billiards Championship
Pankaj Advani gave a flawless display to register comfortable wins over Subodh Lahiri of Uttar Pradesh and Telengana's Ranjit M.N.
The big guns of Indian billiards - Pankaj Advani, Sourav Kothari and Rupesh Shah - registered easy wins in their respective group matches on the first day of the billiards main draw at the National Billiards & Snooker Championship 2015 at the Bengal Rowing Club here on Monday.
In Group A, defending champion Sourav Kothari of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) kickstarted his tourney with a straight win over S. Shankar Rao of Andhra Pradesh.
Though Rao tried holding back his opponent in the first two games, Kothari clinched the encounter with an unfinished break of 100 in the third. In the second game which witnessed some exciting moments, Kothari beat C. Vijayaram of Tamil Nadu.
In a group H encounter, Pankaj Advani gave a flawless display to register comfortable wins over Subodh Lahiri of Uttar Pradesh and Telengana's Ranjit M.N. The 12-time world champion Advani also scored a century break against both Ranjit and Lahiri.
In Group E, Rupesh Shah of PSPB beat Anupam Jha of Bihar 3-0 with the scoreline reading 101(101)-00, 104(96)-00, 105(45)-14.