Easy ride for Mehta; Advani stretched

Playing in Group F,ex-champion Advani was in a tricky situation against Khaneja before he wriggled out of it through sheer experience in the best-of-five frames league match. The Bangalore cueist,who won the national billiards crown for the sixth time,was 0-2 down as his opponent from Chandigarh took the first two frames 75-10,91-10,including a break of 65 in the second.

Advani stormed back with a break of 88 in the third,to win the frame 88-8 and bridge the gap to 1-2 before clinching the next 60-25 to even the score. In the decider,Advani was in his elements once he got a favourable position as he went on to clear the table and take the frame 61-16 for a 3-2 win.

Seasoned Maharashtra cueist Sarang Shroff bit the dust against M Yogesh Kumar of Karnataka after leading 2-0. Shroff bagged the first two frames 87-22,71-32,but Yogesh rallied brilliantly and wrapped up the match by taking the next three 72-26,62-31,76-36.

In Group E,Railways’ Kamal Chawla,who finished No 3 in the IBSF world championship last year,opened his campaign with a swift 80-22,72-35,110-7 win against Anuj Sharma of Goa,including a break of 61 in the third frame. In the same group,local lad Anand Raghuvanshi defeated Kunal Manchanda of Rajasthan in straight frames 50-39,61-11,69-32. This is the first time since 2008 that the third-year engineering student has entered the main draw in the nationals.