Recently crowned the World champion in the 150-up format and the top seed here at the Manisha National billiards and snooker championship, Pankaj Advani put himself in line for a seventh national billiards title when he got past Brijesh Damani with ease in the semifinals on Monday.
Advani rounded off his winning streak with two century breaks of 129 and 151 for a 4-1 victory against his PSPB teammate. In the other semifinal, Rupesh Shah (PSPB) rallied from a two-game deficit to dethrone teammate Sourav Kothari 4-2.
Taking centrestage
Earlier in the quarterfinals, Advani faced a resolute 23-year-old Dhwaj Haria. Once he got into the groove, Advani took centrestage to eventually trounce the young aspirant. Advani levelled game scores, winning the second with a fluent 143.
Haria, who showed good form in the runup to the last eight, made a composed 133 to regain the lead at 2-1 before Advani moved around the table with his usual calmness and cracked big breaks of 145 and 127 to lead 3-2, and eventually clinch the sixth game with two fine efforts of 61 and 67.
Two-time IBSF World billiards championship winner Shah was in top gear against Railways’ Siddharth Parikh.
The 43-year-old Shah ran up breaks of 88 and 55 in the first game, and 96 in the second, before touching peak form for breaks of 150 and 151 in the third and fourth games to score an overwhelming victory against Parikh.
Three century breaks
In the other two last-eight contests, Dhruv Sitwala made three century breaks and yet lost to Damani 2-4, while Sourav Kothari beat Siddharth Parikh 4-0.
The results:
Semifinals: Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Brijesh Damani (PSPB) 4-1 [101-151 (102), 150-21, 150 (99)-62, 150 (129)-47, 151 (151)-0]; Rupesh Shah (PSPB) bt Sourav Kothari (PSPB) 4-2 [54-150, 25-150, 150 (121)-24, 150-0, 150-80, 150-111 (88)].
Quarterfinals: Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Dhwaj Haria (PSPB) 4-2 [99-151 (86), 151 (143)-0, 84-151 (133), 151 (145)-0, 152 (127)-5, 150 (61,67)-78]; Brijesh Damani (PSPB) 4-2 [128 (102)-151 (90), 152-124, 0-150 (139), 151 (92)-58, 151-0, 151-126 (102); Sourav Kothari (PSPB) bt Vishal Madan (Mah) 4-0 (150-97, 151 (151)-9, 152 (54)-99 (58), 152 (90)-8]; Rupesh Shah (PSPB) bt Siddharth Parikh (Rlys) 4-0 [151 (88, 55)-22, 150 (96)-4, 150 (150)-2, 150 (151)-13] .
