Lakshman, Pankaj, Sumer, Anurag advance

91st National Billiards and Snooker Championship

By Narendra Bhale

Indore: In the 91st National 15-Red Snooker Championship, being held at the Yashwant Club’s Smash Hall, Lakshman Rawat, Sumer Mago, Pankaj Advani, Saurav Kothari, and Anurag Giri have secured their places in the top 32 after winning their respective matches.

In the group 48 matches, PSPB’s Lakshman Rawat defeated Odisha’s Ashutosh Pade 5-3 in a closely contested match to enter the top 32. Meanwhile, Maharashtra’s Sumer Mago easily defeated MP’s Uzaer Khan 5-0, Railway’s Mushataq Khan defeated Punjab’s Dhruv Verma 5-1, and PSPB’s Nitesh Madan defeated Odisha’s Subrat Das 5-4.

Pankaj Advani, a 28-time world champion, had to work hard to secure his win. He defeated UP’s Shahzaid Saifi 5-4 in a closely contested match to secure his place in the top 32.

Other winners who entered the top 32 include UP’s Ayush Mittal, who defeated Gujarat’s Shashi Patel 5-4; PSPB’s Saurav Kothari, who defeated MP’s Ritic Jain 5-2; J&K’s Mudassir, who defeated Maharashtra’s Abhishek Bajaj 5-2; Chandigarh’s Sumit Talwar, who defeated UP’s Arabaz Mohammed 5-3; MP’s Anurag Giri, who defeated Railway’s Faizal Khan 5-2; UP’s Akshay Kumar, who defeated Maharashtra’s Aditya Shandilya 5-2; Maharashtra’s Shahbaz Khan, who defeated Delhi’s Sunny Chaudhary 5-1; Karnataka’s BC Kartik, who defeated Delhi’s Shoaib Khan 5-1; and Chandigarh’s Ranveer Duggal, who defeated Assam’s T. Deka 5-0.