The favourites had it easy in their opening group stage matches of the Senior National men’s billiards championship, at KSBA here on Wednesday.
Defending champion Pankaj Advani posted a facile 100-33, 103-15, 100-5 victory over Bihar’s Tushar Shrestha. Pankaj recorded breaks of 55, 29 and 100 in a 28-minute one-sided affair. “The first few matches are all about getting settled in. I haven’t had much practice, so it was nice to get a good start,” Pankaj said.
The 32-year-old stated that the 100-up format provided scope for upsets. Even small errors could prove to be costly, he explained. “It is tricky. You could see a few upsets and close matches, especially in the knockout rounds. A couple of good visits is enough to get a win,” Pankaj said.
Rupesh Shah also had an easy time at the table, dismantling Uttarakhand’s Lakshay Sudi 100-0, 100-6, 100-0. Rupesh shone through with breaks of 94, 63 and 93.
Sourav Kothari, Dhruv Sitwala and B. Bhaskar outclassed their opponents.
The results
Group stage: M.L. Lakshman (Kar) bt Ankur Khetan (Guj) 100-87, 102-54, 102-39; Sourav Kothari (PSPB) bt Utsav Ramani (Guj) 100-40, 102-17, 101-35; Durga Prasad (Rlys) bt Muneem (Tel) 102-27, 100-29, 102-20; Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Tushar Shrestha (Bih) 100-33, 103-15, 100-5; Rupesh Shah (PSPB) bt Lakshay Sudi (Utk) 100-0, 100-6, 100-0; Vijay Nichani (TN) bt K.S. Naveen Kumar (Kar) 102-32, 102-68, 84-100, 100-45; Rishab Kumar (Mah) bt Nadeem Azeez (Kar) 101-89, 101-37, 100-92; Aamer Hussain (WB) bt Kaavya Bharath (TN) 100-56, 49-101, 52-100, 100-9, 102-75; Brijesh Damani (PSPB) bt Kunal Agarwal (Odi) 101-26, 68-101, 100-19, 100-0; Dhruv Sitwala (PSPB) bt Ketan Chawla (MP) 104-19, 100-30, 100-36; Siddharth Parikh (Rlys) bt I.S. Malki (UP) 101-5, 102-64, 101-68; B. Bhaskar (Kar) bt Simhadri Reddy (AP) 101-48, 100-36, 102-5.
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