Thaindian News

Chennai, July 28 (IANS) The big guns Pankaj Advani (PSPB), Geet Sethi (Gujarat) and defending champion Alok Kumar (PSPB) qualified for the knock-out stage of the senior National billiards championships here Thursday by topping their respective groups.

Advani, the 26-year-old from Bangalore and holder of seven world titles, was in good touch in winning all his five league matches as also Sethi, the nine times World champion who though still not at his very best, showed some fluency of the old.

Alok Kumar sailed through both his matches Thursday to more than compensate for his shock defeat against Shankar Rao earlier in the league and seemed to be running into good form.

The results (preliminary league):

Group A: Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Jayshankar Shaw (Jhar) 3-0; Vishal Madan (Mah) bt IV Rajeev (AP) 3-0; Prem Prakash (TN) bt MS Reddy (AP) 3-1; Prem Prakash (TN) bt Vishal Madan (Mah) 3-0; MS Reddy (Rlys) bt Jayshankar Shaw (Jhar) 3-0; Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt IV Rajiv (AP) 3-0; Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Prem Prakash (TN) 3-0.

Group B: Nitin Kohli (UP) bt Shankar Rao (AP) 3-1; S Simhachallam (Rlys) bt Utsav Ramani (Guj) 3-0; Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Anshul Mittal 3-0; Shankar Rao (AP) bt S Simhachallam (Rlys) 3-; Utsav Ramani (Guj) bt Anushal Mittal (Har) 3-0; Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Nitin Kohli (UP) 3-0.

Group C: Siddarth Parekh (Rlys) bt Rajkumar (Kar) 3-1; Geet Sethi (Guj) bt Ketan Chawla (MP) 3-0; Bhuvaneshwaran (TN) bt Saketh Sourab (Bih) 3-0; Siddarth Parekh (Rlys) bt Ketan Chawla (MP) 3-2; D Rajkumar (Kar) bt D Bhuvaneshwaran (TN) 3-2; Geet Sethi (Guj) bt Saketh Sourab (Bih) 3-0; Geet Sethi (Guj) bt D Rajkumar (TN) 3-0.

Group D: Dhruv Sitwala (PSPB) bt Subrat Das (Ori) 3-0; Arun Agarwal (Mah) bt Abhineet Sharma (MP) 3-1; Akram Khan (Chd) bt Arif Akthar (Chd) 3-1; Abhineet Sharma (MP) bt Subrat Das (Ori) 3-0; Dhuruv Singh (PSPB) bt Arif Aktar (Chd) 3-1; Akram Khan (Chd) bt Arun Agarwal (Mah) 3-1.

Group E: Saurav Kothari (PSPB) bt Shivam Arora (Bih) 3-0; Aditya Agarwal (Rlys) bt Kankan Shamsi (UP) 3-1; Rupesh Shah (PSPB) bt Abhishek Saini (Har) 3-0; Rupesh Shah (PSPB) bt Kankan Shamsi (UP) 3-0; Sourav Kothari (PSPB) bt Aditya Agarwal (Rlys) 3-0; Shivam Arora (Bih) bt Abhishek Saini (Har) 3-0.

Group F: Manish Jagdale (Mah) bt Shakeel Ahmed (WB) 3-1; Ashok Shandilya (Rlys) bt Kunal Manchanda (Raj) 3-0; Ashok Shandilya (Rlys) bt Mahesh Jagdale (Mah) 3-1; Shakeel Ahmed (WB) bt Amit Sharma (Del) 3-0; SA Saleem (TN) bt Kunal Manchanda (Raj) 3-0; Shakeel Ahmed (WB) bt Kunal Manchanda (Raj) 3-0; Ashok Shandilya (Rlys) bt SA Saleem (TN) 3-0; Manish Jagdale (Mah) bt Amit Sharma (Del) 3-2.

Group G: B Bhaskar (Kar) bt IH Manudev (Kar) 3-0; K Venkatesam (Rlys) bt MC Manoj (TN) 3-0; B Bhaskar (Kar) bt MC Manoj (TN) 3-0; IH Manu Dev (Kar) bt Varun Madan (Del) 3-0; K. Venkatesam (Rlys) w/o Jayanth Meghanani; K Venkatesam (Rlys) bt Varun Madan (Del) 3-1; B Bhaskar (Kar) bt Varun Madan (Del) 3-0; K Venkatesam (Rlys) bt IH Manudev (Kar) 3-0.

Group H: Dhvaj Haria (Guj) bt Amit Lath (Ori) 3-0; Devendra Joshi (PSPS) bt Manish Jain (WB) 3-2; Shyam Jagtiani (WB) bt Durga Prasad (Rlys) 3-2; Shyam Jagtiani (Rlys) bt Manish Jain (WB) 3-0; Devendra Joshi (PSPB) bt Amit Lath (Ori) 3-0; Durga Prasad (AP) bt Dhvaj Haria (Guj) 3-1; Manish Jain (WB) bt Amit Lath (Ori) 3-0; Devendra Joshi (PSPB) bt Durga Prasad (Rlys) 3-0.