Pankaj Advani, the country’s most celebrated cue sports player, showed awesome touch and dished out a master-class display to record an authoritative 8-2 win against Tamil Nadu’s Varun Kumar in the best-of-15-frame semi-finals of the ‘NSCI Baulkline 3.0’ All India Snooker Open 2024, played at the NSCI billiards hall on Thursday.
In Friday’s final, Advani will meet Ishpreet Singh Chadha for the top prize of Rs five lakhs. Chadha defeated last year’s runner-up Aditya Mehta 8-4 (111-5, 26-81, 130-0, 137-0, 91-51, 0-86, 0-129, 93-25, 68-58, 24-63, 113-18, 80-0) in an all-Mumbai second semi-final.
The Bengluru cueist Advani, competing in the ‘NSCI Baulkline’ for the first time, quickly settled down and potted consistently. He compiled a sequence of significant breaks, including two centuries, to dominate the first session racing to 5-0 lead at the break. Kumar was a bundle of nerves and played some poor safety shots and provided Advani with ideal opportunities, which he capitalized on.
Advani, made his intentions clear from the start and uncorked an 84 break in the first and in the second he knocked in a timely 74 to snatch the frame from Kumar, who was leading 49-0.
Later, Advani was fortunate to get easy openings and he grabbed them with both hands by firing in breaks of 105 and 104 to swell the lead before winning the fifth with a 53 break.
After the break, Kumar did well to halt Advani’s charge to victory. Kumar constructed a break of 72 to pocket the sixth and win his first frame. Advani regained his touch and rolled in a 76 to take the seventh before Kumar with steady play and small runs claimed the eighth to delay Advani’s run to the finish line. However, Advani was not prepared to wait any longer as he clinched the ninth and 10th frames to wrap up the contest, with the frames scores reading 105-23, 74-49, 105-0, 104-4, 75-31, 0-81, 97-20, 0-80, 78-0, and 67-43 in his favour.
Results - Semi-finals: Pankaj Advani beat Varun Kumar 8-2 (105(84)-23, 74(74)-49, 105(105)-0, 104(104)-4, 75(53)-31, 0-81(72), 97(76)-20, 0-80, 78(53)-0, 67-43).
Ishpreet Singh Chadha beat Aditya Mehta 8-4 (111(55,55)-5, 26-81(77), 130(130)-0, 137(84)-0, 91(56)-51, 0-86(86), 0-129(129), 93(73)-25, 68-58, 24-63, 113(67)-18, 80(65)-0).
