Comfortable wins for Pankaj Advani,Geet Sethi

In another absorbing match,it was the veteran player from Orissa Ahsan-ul-Haque who put up an admirable show of resoluteness and great courage to ward off the stiff resistance of talented Karnataka lad,Mundir Sherazi getting the better of him by 55-100,101-70,100-59 and 101-99 points. The climax came when in the fourth game which was just a humdinger,Ahsan prevailed over Mundir.

The much heralded star cueist of the country,“ Wonder boy of Indian Billiards”,was in his elements in his very first outing as he thrashed Manoj Mahajan of Jammu & Kashmir in straight games by 100-30,103-00 and 102-34 points. Winning the first game with consummate ease,Pankaj touched peak form to strike a fabulous break of 103,the first century of the seniors billiards event,as he chalked up the break to regale the expectant spectators.

On the other table,the billiards maestro,Geet Sethi took time to settle down,but once he had done it,Geet was a bit too good for Deepak Rupani of Andhra defeating him by 100-70 and 101-13 points in a match which saw Geet earn the first frame by default when Deepak came late and the referee immediately ruled that the first game is awarded to Geet because of the late coming of Deepak. The star player of the state of Uttar Pradesh,Nittin Kohli recorded an easy 3-1 games win over Arif Akhtar of Chandigarh.

Another world champion of the points format Ashok Shandilya meanwhile was cruising to a straight games victory over Sunny Choudhary of Delhi by 100-32,102-64,101-75 points,in a group match of the billiards championship being played on a format of best of 5 games of 100 up each on a league basis. At the conclusion,16 players will qualify for the knock-out stage. Dhruv Sitwala was another easy winner of the day beating UP youngster,Malkit Singh. Rupesh Shah also scored a straight games win over Akram Khan of West Bengal getting the better of him by 101-07,101-13 and 102-15 points while Asian snooker doubles gold medallist,Rafath Habib of the Railways was also showing his prowess in billiards when he disposed off his compatriot from Chennai MC Manoj by 100-30,100-73,26-100 and 100-64 points.

In the evening the prize distribution ceremony of the sub-juniors event was held with the ‘billiards icon’ Geet Sethi giving away the prizes to the winners.