Manisha Billiards Championship: Maharashtra cueists subdue seeded players

Abhishek Manroa January 26, 2012 0

Manisha Billiards Championship: Maharashtra cueists subdue seeded players

PUNE: Maharashtra cueists had a field day at the National Billiards championship on Wednesday when Arun Agarwal caused the biggest upset of the day by beating Brijesh Damani, who had beaten Geet Sethi on the way to making knock-out stage in the Manisha-National Billiards and Snooker Championship.

The championship which is being organized by the Billiards and Snooker Association of Maharashtra at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana indoor hall saw Sourav Kothari, Siddharth Parikh stretching to the distance before making it to quarterfinals; defending champion Pankaj Advani also through to last-8 stage.

Joining Agarwal in the quarterfinals was Mumbai-based V Subramanian, who was lucky to have sneaked into the knockout from group stages after Geet Sethi withdrew from the championship despite having made the grade.

In the pre-quarterfinal match, Subramanian played with confidence despite losing the first frame 123-155 to seasoned Prem Prakash. That was a tight contest, but then on this one-eyed wonder eked out good breaks to wrap up the match and quarterfinal berth winning the next three 152-124, 152-98, 150-32, that included a break of 64 in the second frame.

In the quarterfinals, Subramanian will meet Sourav Kothari, who made it to his first National billiards quarters with a hard-fought 3-2 win over Railways cueist S Simachalam. Both traded the first four frames—Sourav winning the first and third while Simachalam taking the second and fourth. In the third, Kothari had a brake of 112 to take in 152-7, before the match went into the decider wherein both played for safety before Kothari managed a break of 25 to take the frame and the match 152-18.

Also making it to the quarterfinals were, defending champion Pankaj Advani, former champions Rupesh Shah and Alok Kumar, who accounted for Devendra Joshi, Siddharth Parikh and the last year’s runner-up B Bhaskar.

All-Maharashtra ladies final

Mumbai’s Meenal Thakur and Pune cueist Arantxa Sanchis will face-off in the final of the Ladies Billiards championship after they came through their semifinal encounters rather easily.

Former champion Meenal Thakur made an easy work of I Lahiri of Andhra Pradesh before winning her semifinal encounter in three straight frames—76-48, 78-17, 75-17.

On the other table, Arantxa defeated Karnataka’s Varsha Sanjeev, who won three titles last week in junior and sub-junior section, 77-56, 76-67, 77-31. That Varsha managed to reach the semifinals itself was an achievement given that she defeated seasoned and former champion R Uma Devi in the quarterfinals.

Pune girl Arantxa too defeated former world snooker champion M Chitra, winning her quarterfinal 34-50, 53-27, 51-31, while Meenal edged past Neena Praveen of Tamil Nadu 50-29, 51-21.

Results:

Men’s Billiards Quarterfinals:

Pre-Quarterfinals: Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Shakeel Ahmed (Ben) 3-0 (152 (118)-15, 150 (150)-0, 150-30); Rupesh Shah (PSPB) bt K Venkatesham (Rlys) 3-0 (151 (65, 63)-89 (52), 152 (95)-50, 150 (67)-139); V Subramanian (Mah) bt Prem Prakash (TN) 3-1 (123-155, 152 (64)-124, 152-98, 150-32); Sourav Kothari (PSPB) bt S Simachalam (Rlys) 3-2 (150 (50)-102 (58), 52-151, 152 (112)-7, 102 (54)-151 (54), 152 (25)-18); Arun Agarwal (Mah) bt Brijesh Damani (Ben) 3-2 (19-152 (58), 150 (84)-139 (67), 82-151, 151-148, 150-68); Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Devendra Joshi (PSPB) 3-1 (150-132, 150 (96)-77, 117 (76)-151 (123), 152-125 (85)); Siddharth Parikh (Rlys) bt Manish Jain (Ben) 3-2 (150-137, 82-151, 68-150, 152-91, 150 (89)-83); B Bhaskar (Kar) bt Sarang Shroff (Mah) 3-1 (89-150, 147 (66, 60)-112 (76), 150 (65)-97, 150 (121)-69 (57)).

League stage:

Group A: Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Sarang Shroff (Mah) 3-0 (100 (100)-0, 101 (101)-52, 100 (52)-0); Durga Prasad (Rlys) bt Sundeep Gulati (Del) 3-0 (100-76, 101 (63)-96, 100-55); Bhuwaneshwaran D (TN) bt Kankan Shamsi (UP) 3-0 (101-40, 102-70, 100-46); Sarang Shroff (Mah) bt Durga Prasad (Rlys) 3-1 (100-53, 23-100 (67), 102 (49)-64, 101-32).

Group B: B Bhaskar (Kar) bt S Simachalam (Rlys) 3-2 (101 (77)-5, 35-100, 97 (57)-100, 100-43, 101 (101)-0); Nittin Kohli (UP) bt Dhvaj Haria (Guj) 3-2 (77-102, 100-91, 24-100, 102-8, 101-62).

Group C: Brijesh Damani (Ben) bt Anmoldeep Singh (Pun) 3-1 (100 (88)-19, 68-100, 104-50, 103-37); Shekhar Surve (Mah) bt Anmoldeep Singh (Pun) 3-0 (100 (43)-71, 101-65, 100 (40)-88).

Group D: D Raj Kumar (Kar) bt Subrat Das (Ori) 3-0 (101-82, 101-73, 101 (62)-62); Prem Prakash (TN) bt Dhruv Sitwala (Rlys) 3-0 (102-5, 100 (56)-11, 102 (88)-53); Arun Agarwal (Mah) bt MS Reddy (Rlys) 3-0 (74-100 (59), 101 (96)-33, 100 (60)-98, 100-58).

Group E: Manish Jain (Rlys) bt Farhad Tengra (Mah) 3-0 (100 (67)-19, 101-34, 101 (70)-3); Sourav Kothari (PSPB) bt Ashok Shandilya (Rlys) 3-1 (101-29, 100 (61)-65, 19-100 (59), 100 (100)-0).

Group F: Siddharth Parikh (Rlys) bt Rupesh Shah (PSPB)) 3-0 (101 (64)-22, 100 (58)-83 (67), 102 (68)-8).

Group G: Shakeel Ahmed (Ben) bt Shyam Jagtiani (Ben) 3-2 (100 (51)-8, 61-102, 100-77, 22-101 (63), 100-59); Devendra Joshi (PSPB) bt Shyam Jagtiani (Ben) 3-2 (100 (97)-2, 101-36, 37-102 (73), 2-100 (73), 101-22).

Group H: K Venkatesham (Rlys) bt Vishal Madan (Mah) 3-1 (46-101 (66), 101-71 (62), 101 (60)-53, 100 (62)-86 (54); Vishal Madan (Mah) bt Himanshu Jain (AP) 3-0 (100-71, 100-36, 101-62).

Women’s Billiards:

Semifinals: Meenal Thakur (Mah) bt I Lahari (AP) 3-0 (76-48, 78-17, 75-17); Arantxa Sanchis (Mah) bt Varsha Sanjeev (Kar) 3-0 (77-56, 76-67, 77-31).

Quarterfinals: Varsha Sanjeev (Kar) bt R Umadevi (Kar) 2-1 (51-44, 26-52, 51-30); Arantxa Sanchis (Mah) bt Chitra M (Kar) 2-1 (34-50, 53-27, 51-31); I Lahari (AP) bt Judy Walia (Kar) 2-0 (52-17, 50-42); Meenal Thakur (Mah) bt Neena Praveen (TN) 2-0 (50-29, 51-21).

Pre-quarterfinals: Arantxa Sanchis (Mah) bt Indira Gowda (Kar) 2-0 (51-27, 52-44); I Lahari (AP) bt Judy Walia (Kar) 2-1 (16-50, 51-35, 50-07); Neena Praveen (TN) bt Ashwini Puranik (MP) 2-1 (51-29, 35-50, 50-35).