B. Bhaskar eased past RSPB's Siddharth Parikh to book a semifinal clash with PSPB's Alok Kumar in the men's billiards event of the Manisha National billiards and snooker championship here on Wednesday.
Bhaskar secured a 3-1 victory over Maharashtra's Sarang Shroff and was on top of his game while eliminating Parikh from the championship. Bhaskar cracked two century breaks to emerge a runaway winner.
Alok, meanwhile, defeated Maharashtra's Arun Agrawal.
Alok lost to Vishal Madan in his opening league match, but got the better of players like Himanshu Jain, Parthiv Jhaveri, Rafat Habib before scoring a crucial win against K. Venketesham on Tuesday night.
Maharashtra's V. Subramanian and Agrawal provided a rousing start to the knock-out phase by defeating fancied opponents.
While Subramanian brought an end to Prem Prakash's remarkable run, Agrawal made the most of the chances to prevail over West Bengal's Brijesh Damani.
Maharashtra's Arantxa Sanchis won her first senior National title, defeating the experienced Meenal Thakur in the final played on a five-game 75 up format.
The results: Women's billiards: Final: Arantxa Sanchis (Mah) bt Meenal Thakur (Mah) 51-75, 76-38, 76-32, 37-76, 75-61; Semifinals: Meenal bt I. Lahari (AP) 76-48, 78-17, 75-17; Arantxa bt Varsha Sanjeev (Kar) 77-56, 76-67, 77-31. Men's billiards: Quarterfinals (150 up, seven games): B. Bhaskar (Kar) bt Siddharth Parikh (RSPB) 152(147)-20, 150(79)-13, 151(111)-70, 150(78)-2; Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Arun Agrawal (Mah) 152(82)-33, 150(120)-116, 151(68)-127(58), 151-118. Pre-quarter-finals (150 up, five games): Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Shakeel Ahmed (WB) 152(118)-15, 150(150)-0, 150-30; Rupesh Shah (PSPB) bt K. Venketesham (RSPB) 151(65, 63)-89 (52), 152 (95)-50, 150 (67)-139; Bhaskar bt Sarang Shroff (Mah) 89-150, 147(66, 60)-112(76), 150 (65)-97, 150 -69(57); Alok bt Devendra Joshi (PSPB) 150-132, 150(96)-77, 117(76)-151(123), 152-125(85); V. Subramanian (Mah) bt Prem Prakash (TN) 123-155(71), 152(64)-124, 152-98, 150-32; Arun bt Brijesh Damani (WB) 19-152(58), 150(84)-139(67), 82-151, 151-148, 150-68; Sourav Kothari (PSPB) bt S. Simhachalam (RSPB) 150(70)-102, 92-151, 152(112)-7, 102(54)-151(54), 152-18; Siddharth bt Manish Jain (WB) 150-137, 82-151, 68-150, 152-91, 150(89*)-83.
