Pankaj Advani's impressive run continues in Asiad selection meet

Reigning world billiards champion Pankaj Advani survived a scare before tumbling Ashok Shandilya 3-2 to end his prooceedings on an unbeaten note in the seventh day of the Asian Games National selection tournament for billards and snooker here today.

Shandilya, known for his fighting qualities, fired on all cylinders to stretch Advani to limits in the final encounter of the day but the Bangalore lad raised his game to carve out a 6-100 100-11 100-45 02-100 100-43 victory.

Earlier in the day, Advani defeated Dhruv Sitwala (3-2) 100-97 60-100 73-100 100-09 100-00.    

Meanwhile, eight-time world billiards champion Geet Sethi had a mixed outing today. He won against Alok Kumar 3-1 in the first game but lost to Devendra Joshi 1-3 later in the day.

Against Alok Kumar, Sethi won the opening game with an unfinished 100 break.

However, an unforced error at 95 eluded Sehti the second game with his opponent coming out with a 101 unfinished break to level the proceeding.

But with the help of small runs, Sethi won the third game and then constructed yet another century break to pocket the encounter 3-1.

Meanwhile, Sourav Kothari, who initially lost two matches, drew parity in his performance today by wining two consecutive games against Alok Kumar and Devendra Joshi by an identical 3-2 margin.

Result:

Alok Kumar bt Devendra Joshi 3-2; 0-102(102) 18-100(58)100(89)-05 100-29 100-90.     

Pankaj Advani bt Dhruv Sitwala 3-2; 100-97 60-100 73-100 100-09 100-0.    

Sourav Kothari bt Devendra Joshi 3-2; 46-100 100-06 0-100 100-43 100-13.     

Sourav Kothari bt Alok Kumar 3-2; 48-100(73) 101-37 100(70)-28 39-101 101-92.    

Ashok Shandilya bt Devendra Joshi 3-2; 98-102 100-76 87-101(67) 101-16 101-13.    

Devendra Joshi bt Geet Sethi 3-1; 100-83 100(72)-20 73-100(78) 100-62.     

Geet Sethi bt Alok Kumar 3-1; 100(100)-4 95-101(101) 100-50 100(100)-40.

Dhruv Sitwala bt B Bhaskar 3-2; 48-102 100(70)-68 0-100(100) 100(100)-95 100(50)-51.      

Pankaj Advani bt Ashok Shandilya 3-2; 76-100 100-11 100-45 2-100 100-43.