Indore’s Ketan Chawla rallies to reach top eight

*28-time world champion Pankaj Advani reaches quarter-finals

*91st National Billiards and Snooker Competition

By Narendra Bhale

Indore. In the 91st National Billiards and Snooker (Men) Championship being played under the aegis of the Indian Billiards and Snooker Association and jointly hosted by Madhya Pradesh Billiards and Snooker Association and Yashwant Club, Ketan Chawla of Madhya Pradesh defeated Rishabh Thakkar of Maharashtra in a marathon match that lasted five and a half hours and entered the quarter-finals of Senior Billiards. Along with this, 28-time world champion Pankaj Advani of PSPB, Dhruv Sitwala of PSPB, Dhwaj Haria of PSPB, Saurabh Kothari also entered the last eight.

In the final league matches of this national championship senior billiards being played in the smash hall of the city’s prestigious Yashwant Club, Madhya Pradesh’s Ketan Chawla defeated Maharashtra’s Rishat Thakkar 3-2 (151-82, 151-56, 143-151, 120-150, 150-114) in a marathon match that lasted five and a half hours. Ketan had taken the lead by winning the first two frames, but Maharashtra’s ace player Rishab also made a strong comeback and brought the score to 2-2 by winning the third and fourth frames. In the deciding frame, Ketan maintained the lead from the beginning by playing in an explosive style and won the frame and the match by scoring 150 points.
Interesting matches were seen in the final league matches of senior billiards. 28-time world champion Pankaj Advani, who has been awarded Padma Shri, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna Award and Padma Bhushan, did not take much time to reach the last eight. Playing for PSPB, he defeated K. Venkatesham of RSPB 3-0. In other matches, Ryan Rajmi of Maharashtra defeated B. Bhaskar of Karnataka 3-2, Dhruv Sitwala of PSPB defeated Siddharth Parikh of RSPB 3-1, Brijesh Dammani of PSPB defeated Aditya Agarwal of RSPB 3-2, Dhwaj Haria of PSPB defeated S. Srikrishna of PSPB 3-1, Saurabh Kothari of PSPB defeated Vishal Madan of Maharashtra 3-1, Rohan Jambusaria of Maharashtra defeated B. Jagadeesh of Tamil Nadu 3-0 to enter the last eight.

National Junior Snooker

MP’s Tathya won easily

In the league matches of the main round of National Junior Snooker, young players are showing their best game and impressing everyone with their game. In the league matches, Abdul Hanan of Uttar Pradesh defeated Rutvik Kasliwal of Madhya Pradesh 3-0, MP’s Tathya Sachdev defeated Anish Raj of Jharkhand 3-0, Aryan Dubey of Jharkhand defeated Sam Elvin of Tamil Nadu 3-2 in a tough match, Bhavya Pipaliya of Gujarat defeated Mukesh of Rajasthan 3-0, Sumer Mago of Maharashtra defeated Hardik Jangid of Rajasthan 3-0, Dhruv Patel of Gujarat defeated Syed Kabir 3-0, Shayan Rajmi of Maharashtra defeated Rohit Negi of Himachal 3-0, Parth Shah of Gujarat defeated Mohammad Mustafa of Karnataka 3-2.