National billiards: Advani retains crown

World Champion Pankaj Advani retained the national billiards title with a flawless show in the final, blanking Bhalchandra Bhaskar 5-0 at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana in Mumbai on Friday.

Petroleum Sports Promotion Board's Advani raced to a straight-frame victory in the best-of-nine summit clash against his opponent from Karnataka to clinch his sixth national title.

Advani won 151(151)-31, 152(59)-26, 153(151)-0, 150(150)-0, 150(62)-36, even as Bhaskar remained a helpless spectator while his rival occupied the table.

In the semi-final, Advani had blanked Sourav Kothari of West Bengal 4-0 to set up a repeat final against Bhaskar, whom he had beaten in 2011 to lift the trophy.

In the other semi-final, Bhaskar got the better of former champion Alok Kumar, also of PSPB, 4-3 in a closely fought encounter, in which, the former was down 2-3 before clinching the last two frames with breaks of 114 and 108.

Results:
Semi-finals: Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Sourav Kothari (PSPB) 4-0 (151 (53, 81)-31, 150 (114)-100 (92), 151 (56)-81, 151 (85)-34); B Bhaskar (Kar) bt Alok Kumar (PSPB) 4-3 (150 (123)-30, 121 (102)-150 (102), 9-152 (113), 152-28, 19-151(124), 151 (114)-118 (82), 150 (108)-103-(85)).
For 3 and 4 Position: Sourav Kothari (PSPB) bt Alok Kumar (PSPB) 2-1 (150 (59)-107, 62-150 (111), 150 (70)-45).
5 to 8 Placing: Rupesh Shah (PSPB) bt V Subramanian (Mah) 2-1 (101(92)-14, 83-101, 101-77); Siddharth Parikh (Rlys) bt Arun Agarwal (Mah) 2-0(100 (58)-35, 101 (90)-14).
For 5 and 6 Positions: Rupesh Shah (PSPB) bt Siddharth Parikh (Rlys) 2-1 (60-100, 104-88, 100-0).
For 7 and 8 Position: Arun Agarwal (Mah) bt V Subramanian (Mah) 2-0 (101-34, 105-07).