Bangalore, January 16, 2007. Asian Games gold medallist Pankaj Advani
began with a bang by brushing aside the challenge from S Simhachalam
572-271, while Saurav Kothari surprised third seed Md. Asim in the
billiards main draw of the Senior National Billiards and Snooker
Championship, which began at KSBA hall here today.
The 21-year-old Pankaj, representing PSPB, warmed up straight
away to crack breaks of 128 and 105 to wallop the Railways player in
the 90-minute Group ‘F’ tie at 572-271.
In Group ‘C’, qualifier Saurav Kothari came up with useful breaks
of 56 and 59 in the right time to ward off seasoned Md.Asim to win
at 339-256.
Defending champion Devendra Joshi was also in superb form winning
both the matches he played today. The PSPB star first crushed Rafat
Habib of Tamil Nadu 600-298 and later effortlessly beat Ravnaq
Vazirani of Gujarat 788-198.
The other winners of the day included former world champion Geet
Sethi, representing Gujarat, who defeated Varun Taneja 513-290, Alok
Kumar of PSPB beat Shyamal Sharma of Bihar 695-200 and veteran
Arvind Savur of Karnataka overpowered Md. Akram Khan of West Bengal
618-265.
Results (Group league): Group A: Devendra Joshi (PSPB) bt Rafat
Habib 600-298; Lucky Vatnani (A) bt S Mumtaz Ali (Jhar) 340-330;
Ravnaq Vazirani (Guj) W/o from Nitin Agarwal (MP); Rafat Habib bt S
Mumtaz Ali 443-324; Lucky Vatnani W/o Nitin Agarwal (MP); Devendra
Joshi bt Ravnaq Vazirani 788-198.
Group B: Dhruv Sitwala (PSPB) BT Shyam Jagtiani 302-234; Nitin
Kohli (UP) bt D Raj Kumar (Kar) 427-329; Ahsan Ul Haque (Ori) bt
Sandeep Gulati (Del) 333-332; Nitin Kohli (UP) bt Shyam Jagtiani
331-267; D Raj Kumar (Kar) bt Ahsan Ul Haque (Ori) 503-322; Dhruv
Sitwala (PSPB) bt SAndeep Gulati (Del) 680-154.
Group C: Saurav Kothari bt Md Asim (Rly) 339-256; Arvind Savur
(Kar) bt Md Akram Khan (WB) 618-265; Tarun Chandra SAraf (Bih) bt
Praveen Kumar (TN) 387-378.
Group D: Rupesh Shah (Guj) bt Shravan Mohta (Mah) 406-281; K
Venkatesham (Rly) bt Omar Balsara (Mah) 431-337; Anish Parekh (Jhr)
bt I V Rajiv (TN) 409-321.
Group E: B Bhaskar (Kar) bt Yogesh Rai (Rly) 371-249; R Prabhakar
(TN) bt Chetan Chabra (Har) 530-219.
Group F: Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt S Simhachalam (Rly) 572-271;
Shakil Ahmed (WB) bt Rahul Bhargava (RJ) 595-129; Siddharth Parikh
(Rly) bt Subrat Das (Ori) 449-247.
Group G: Geet Sethi (Guj) bt Varun Taneja (Rly) 513-290; Arun
Agarwal (Mah) Raghoo Sinha (UP) 465-463; Sonam Bhutia (WB) bt Aman
Goyal (Har) 341-228.
Group H: Prem Prakash (TN) bt A Satish Kumar (Kar) 764-223; Alok
Kumar (PSPB) bt Shyamal Sharma (Bih) 695-200 and Antim singhi (Rly)
bt Rajul Agarwal (MP) 396-244.
