Advani leads overall ranking for 2010 Asian Games
PANJIM, JUNE 2
Brijesh Damani emerged champion as two other contenders for the top spot, Pankaj Advani and Aditya Mehta faltered against Yasin Merchant and Manan Chandra respectively following an electrifying drama in the final session of second Snooker Selection Tournament for 2010 Asuian Games at Clube Gaspar Dias, Mira Mar on Wednesday.
Damani, who was only hoping for the fourth position after the end of the last session yesterday, did his job well defeating Kamal Chawla 4-3.
It was, however, Damani’s spurring partner Sourav Kothari’s win against Alok Kumar that confirmed Damani the third position.
Damani’s fate for the top spot then hanged on Advani-Merchant and Aditya-Manan matches. One could see Damani sitting with fingers crossed and he heaved a deep sigh of relief as Aditya went down tamely to Manan Chandra 1-4 while Pankaj lost the battle to Merchant by an identical margin.
Final standings:
Brijesh Damani, 11 ranking points, Pankaj Advani 9, Aditya Mehta 7,
Alok Kumar 6, Manan Chandra 5, Yasin Merchant 4, Kamal Chawla 3,
Sourav Kothari 2, Shabaaz Adil Khan 1.
Overall standings:
1 Pankaj Advani 20, 2 Aditya Mehta 13, 2 Brijesh Damani 13, 2 Yasin Merchant 13, 5 Manan Chandra 12, 6 Alok Kumar 10, 7 Sourav Kothari 7, 8 Kamal Chawla 6, 9 Shabaaz Adil Khan 2.
Scores: Sourav Kothari beat Alok Kumar 4-1. 102 (102)-28, 67 (62)-0, 13-76, 69 (61)-16, 74-68; Manan Chanrda beat Aditya Mehta 4-1. 50-46, 66-24, 31-88, 67-29, 76-49.
Brijesh Damani beat Kamal Chawla 4-3. 62-40, 55-65, 09-82 (69), 52-45, 73-12, 17-73, 76 (58)-01; Yasin Merchant beat Pankaj Advani 4-1. 71-27, 02-66, 69-35, 65-55, 110 (110)-19.
Tommorow’s fixtures: billiards 10 a.m. – Geet Sethi vs B Bhaskar, Pankaj Advani vs Sourav Kothari. 12 noon – Devendra Joshi vs Rupesh Shah, Dhruv Sitwala vs Alok Kumar. 2 p.m. – Pankaj Advani vs Alok Kumar, Ashok Shandilya vs Geet Sethi. 4 p.m. – Geet Sethi vs Sourav Kothari, Rupesh Shah vs B Bhaskar. 6 p.m. – Devendra Joshi vs Alok Kumar, Pankaj Advani vs Dhruv Sitwala. 8 p.m. – Devendra Joshi vs Sourav Kothari.
