Advani carves out a facile first-round win
February 16, 2018, Mumbai
Snooker buffs turned out in good numbers for the Rs. 12 lakh CCI Open on Thursday and top seed Pankaj Advani did not disappoint them. The multiple World Champion took a little over an hour to carve out a facile win against Aravind Kumar in the first round of the knockout phase.
The first match can always be tricky, but Advani found his touch right away and capitalised on the openings that came his way. In the end Aravind, with a big gap to cover, decided to accept defeat with all colours on the table. Advani romped home 4-0 (91 (71) – 1, 70-9, 77-8, 78-39).
Earlier in the day Rahul Sachdev delivered a 4-2 result against Alok Kumar, a former national winner. “The match was never one-sided. I was playing him for the first time. I was down 1-2, but he was missing shots and I just made the most of the chances,” said Sachdev.
National champion Sumit Talwar was given a tough time by Pune’s Taaha Khan.
The results (first round): Divya Sharma bt Aditya Agarwal 4-2 (60(53)-11, 27-73, 72-59, 55-28. 35-84, 72-59); Shahabaz Adil Khan bt Sidraj Shah 4-3 (68-26, 89-0, 25-68, 27-60, 65-2, 75-67); Rahul Sachdev bt Alok Kumar 4-2 (62-18, 6-91, 3-75, 66-42, 80(53)-16, 70-25).
Ishpreet Singh Chadha bt Aayush Kumar 4-0 (96-52, 81-34, 62-60, 56-47); Sourav Kothari bt Manav Panchal 4-1 (91(77)-25, 46-67, 60-13, 88-62, 99(99)-0); Manish Jain bt Dilip Kumar 4-3 (23-92, 53-61, 72-21, 63-24, 70(64)-21, 30-90, 61-56).
Sumit Talwar bt Taaha Khan 4-3 (72-41, 13-74(73), 66-13, 73(51)-8, 57-64, 47-63, 77-23); Manan Chandra bt Abhimanyu Gandhi 4-0 (54-37, 94(59)-17, 91-29, 73-26); Pankaj Advani bt Aravind Kumar 4-0 (91(71)-1, 70-9, 77-8, 78-3).
Aditya Mehta bt Akshay Kumar 4-0 (68-18, 69-63, 74-61, 95 (65)-0); Himanshu Jain bt R. Girish 4-1 (75(66)-15, 78-65, 15-70,55-18,55-9).
Kamal Chawla bt Nitesh Madan 4-1 (81-5, 86-0, 86-6, 6-86, 86 (60)-10); Sundeep Gulati bt Malkeet Singh 4-3 (43-82, 40-70, 60-42, 9-61, 70-35, 66-15, 70-58); Yasin Merchant bt Siddharth Parikh 4-3 (54-57, 67-56, 73-19, 9-74, 74-9, 44-71, 56-45).
