Pune, Jan 30 (IANS) Defending champion Aditya Mehta made it look easy while four-time champion Pankaj Advani survived a scare against unheralded Rajat Khaneja of Chandigarh before winning in the deciding fifth frame in the league phase of the National snooker championship here Monday.
Mehta’s stint in England on the Pro-Tour clearly reflected in his play as he took out Sumesh Turki 3-0 in Group A while Advani wriggled out of a tricky situation on sheer experience after being down 0-2.
Khaneja took the first two frames 75-10, 91-10 including a break of 65 in the second.
Advani was made to start afresh and he replied with panache. With a break of 88 in the third, Advani bridged the gap to 1-2 before taking the fourth 60-25.
In the decider though, Advani was in his elements and once he got a favourable position, he went on to clear the table and take the frame 61-16 for a 3-2 win.
Also pushed to the limit was seasoned Maharashtra cueist Sarang Shroff who lost to M Yogesh Kumar of Karnataka 2-3 after leading 2-0.
In Group E, Railways’ Kamal Chawla, who finished No.3 in the World Snooker Championship last year, opened his campaign with a swift 80-22, 72-35, 110-7 win against Anuj Sharma of Goa, including a break of 61 in the third frame.
Results (preliminary league):
Group A: Aditya Mehta (PSPB) bt Sumesh Turki (J and K) 3-0; Aneesh Saini (Har) bt Yogesh Sharma (Mah) 3-0.
Group B: Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Peter Lalrintluanga (Miz) 3-0. Group C: Bhadresh Panchal (Guj) bt Neeraj Kumar (Rlys) 3-1.
Group D: IH Manudev (Kar) bt Pratik Jain (MP) 3-0; M Yogesh Kumar (Kar) bt Sarang Shroff (Mah) 3-2.
Group E: Kamal Chawla (Rlys) bt Anuj Sharma (Goa) 3-0; Anand Raghuvanshi (Mah) bt Kunal Manchanda (Raj) 3-0.
Group F: Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Rajat Khaneja (Chd) 3-2; Vivek Chopra (Pun) bt Dhawal Mackwana (Guj) 3-0.
Group G: Manan Chandra (PSPB) bt Dhruv Varma (Pun) 3-0; Rishit Jain (Del) bt Jeet Kishore Das (Ori) 3-0.
Group H: Rafath Habib (Rlys) bt Sukumar Barman (Asm) 3-0. Group I: Rupesh Shah (PSPB) bt Mridul Das (Asm) 3-1. Group J: Sumit Talwar (Chd) bt AR Arjun (Kar) 3-0.
Group K: Pushpinder Singh (Rlys) bt Rahul Bhargava (Raj) 3-1. Group L: Devendra Joshi (PSPB) bt Rupesh Chauhan (HP) 3-0.
Group M: Shahbaaz Adil Khan (PSPB) bt Valney Gomendis (Goa) 3-0; Shankar Rao (AP) bt Kamal Rohmetra (J and K) 3-2.
Group N: Imran Ganj (TN) bt Sundeep Gulati (Del) 3-0; Lalrina Renthlei (Miz) bt Rishabh Pandya (Mah) 3-1.
Group O: Siddharth Parikh (Rlys) bt Hasan Badami (Mah) 3-2; Dhvaj Haria (Guj) bt Rushabh Jain (Mah) 3-1.
Group P: Faisal Khan (Rlys) bt Anupam Jha (Bih) 3-0; R Girish (Rlys) bt Manish Jain (Ben) 3-0.
