Date:14/08/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/08/14/stories/2004081405231700.htm

Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Joshi, Advani register two wins

KOLKATA, AUG. 13. Devendra Joshi of Maharashtra and Karnataka's Pankaj Advani won both their matches in the billiards selection tournament at the SAI (Eastern Centre) here on Friday. The meet is being held to select the Indian team for the fourth Asian championship at Bangalore in October.

Fourth-seeded Joshi beat the two Railways players — eighth seed Dhruv Sitwala and fifth seed Mohammad Asim — to lead Group `A'. National champion Alok Kumar of Punjab, who prevailed in his first game against Sitwala, was shocked by Asim in the next.

Advani, seeded sixth, downed both second seed B. Bhaskar of Karnataka and third-seeded Ashok Shandilya of Railways.

The results:

Group `A': Alok Kumar (Pun) bt Dhruv Sitwala (Rlys) 3-1 (100(53)- 67, 100-15, 75-100, 100-99); Devendra Joshi (Mah) bt Md. Asim (Rlys) 3-2 (100-46, 100-0, 96-100, 100-9); Joshi bt Sitwala 3-2 (100-6, 100-60, 11-102, 0-100, 100-42); Asim bt Kumar 3-0 (100-49, 101-60, 102-7).

Group `B': B. Bhaskar (Kar) bt Sourav Kothari (Ben) 3-0 (101-51, 101-18, 101-37); Pankaj Advani (Kar) bt Ashok Shandilya (Rlys) 3-1 (100-27, 101-19, 87-106, 107-31); Shandilya bt Kothari 3-1 (100-28, 100-58, 16-100, 101-34; Advani bt Bhaskar 3-1 (100-21, 100-69, 76-100, 100-28). — Our Special Correspondent