24.January.2017
 

Advani wins National Billiards title for 2017

Rupesh stayed No.2 followed by Sourav Kothari No.3 and Brijesh Damani No.4

Pankaj Advani of ONGC (representing PSPB) won National Billiards title for the year 2017 defeating another ONGCian Rupesh Shah 5-1 in the final played today evening at PYC Hindu Gymkhana, Pune.

Advani reached the final defeating Ketan Chawla (MP) 3-nil in Last-32, S. Shankar Rao (AP) 3-nil in Pre-quarters, Dhvaj Haria (PSPB) 4-2 in quarters, Brijesh Damani 4-1 in Semis and finally Rupesh Shah (PSPB) 5-1 to clinch the title. This is Advani’s 28th National title (overall) of his career.

On the otherside, Rupesh came back strongly against top seed Sourav Kothari of PSPB in the semi-finals. Rupesh was trailing two games when he held his nerves strong to win rest of the four games and confirm his berth for the final. Though he fought well in the final but in most of the games, he fall short and Advani, on each mistake, punished heavily to confirm his victory.

For placing match, Sourav Kothari defeated Brijesh 3-nil to secure third place.

Overall placing:
No.1: Pankaj Advani (PSPB) - ONGC
No.2: Rupesh Shah (PSPB) - ONGC
No.3: Sourav Kothari (PSPB) - ONGC
No.4: Brijesh Damani (PSPB) - IOCL
No.5: Dhruv Sitwala (PSPB) - ONGC
No.6: Siddharth Parikh (Railways)
No.7: Dhvaj Haria (PSPB) - IOCL
No.8: Vishal Madan (Maharashtra).