Date:05/08/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/08/05/stories/2005080502842000.htm

Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Advani, Sethi begin well

Principal Correspondent

CHENNAI: Pankaj Advani completed a facile 4-0 win over M.C. Manoj in their best of seven frames Group C match in the Aircel-Cosmopolitan Club snooker invitation tournament at the club premises on Thursday.

The 20-year-old prodigy was in fine form, racking up sufficiently large breaks in each of the frames to settle the issue in just over an hour.

The few mistakes that Manoj made proved his undoing, as Advani effortlessly took charge of each frame, often in the course of one visit - a truth best exemplified in the third, when Manoj, having painstakingly constructed a break of 38, fluffed up a relatively easy black. He could only sit back and watch Advani carve a glorious 98.

In a Group B match, Geet Sethi overcame Rafath Habib 4-0.

Earlier, the tournament was inaugurated by N. Murali, Joint Managing Director, The Hindu.

The results:

Group A: Dharmender Lilly (Punjab) bt Antim Singh (TN) 4-3 (70-47, 58-63, 76-28, 28-70, 30-67, 76-21); Alok Kumar (Pun) bt Raju Bhatija (TN) 4-1 (68-26, 63-59, 68-27, 59-63, 98-0).

Group B: Devendra Joshi (BPCL) bt Harinarayanan (TN) 4-1 (70-23, 60-36, 53-47, 18-68, 73-9); Geet Sethi (Guj) bt Rafath Habib (SRSA) 4-0 (98-6, 66-30, 60-47, 72-15).

Group C: Siddharth Rao (TN) bt Sarang Shroff (TN) 4-2 (22-64, 72-22, 85-50, 90-22, 20-94, 65-31); Pankaj Advani (Kar) bt M.C. Manoj (TN) 4-0 (66-36, 93-28, 98-38, 68-3).

Group D: Aditya Mehta (Mah) bt Prem Prakash (Pun) 4-1 (56-49, 64-48, 47-31, 43-48, 70-31); Manan Chandra (Del) bt S.A. Saleem (TN) 4-1 (51-64, 58-35, 69-29, 62-24, 80-23).