A few stalwarts of the sport faltered in the 100 up format in the men's billiards event of the Manisha 79th National billiards and snooker championships at the PYV Hindu Gymkhana here on Monday. All of them remain in the fray for the knock-out though.
First Manish Jain stunned seasoned campaigner Ashok Shandilya and then Vishal Madan scored a roaring victory over Alok Kumar in Sunday's last round of league matches.
Then on Monday Sandeep Gulati beat Sarang Shroff, Brijesh Damani brought a screeching halt to Geet Sethi's winning streak and finally D. Raj Kumar beat Dhruv Sitwala. The last round of league matches will be played on Tuesday and the upset results will have a bearing on the composition of the final 16 who would make the knock-out of the tournament.
Sethi had appeared somewhat vulnerable against I.V. Rajiv, but even while on the brink he was able to wriggle out, especially in the second game. Damani began with a 100 break against Sethi, sustained his consistent display in the second and third games and straightaway became the favourite to top his group.
The qualifier from West Bengal, Jain continued to steal the spotlight after his win over Shandilya. He's almost to certain to make the knock-out.
The results: Junior girl's final:Billiards: Keerat Bhandal (Del) bt Varsha Sanjeev (Kar) 132-129; Snooker: Varsha Sanjeev (Kar) bt I. Lahari (AP) 26-73, 69-22, 66-41.
Billiards: Men (all league matches set to five games and 100 up format): Group A: Sandeep Gulati (Del) bt Sarang Shroff (Mah) 3-1 [100(45)-85, 56-102, 100-35, 100-85], Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Durga Prasad (RSPB) 3-0 [102(102)-2, 100(76) -15, 100(100)-0], Shroff bt D. Bhuwaneshwaran (TN) 3-0 [101-77, 101-86, 101 (43)-37], Kankhan Shamshi (UP) bt Gulati 3-2 [101-56, 101-89, 90(53)-100, 13-101, 101-41].
Group B: S. Simhachalam (RSPB) bt Dhvaj Haria (Guj) 3-2 [73-100, 28-101, 100-42, 100-35, 100-35] and bt Anupam Jha (Bihar) 3-0 [100-19, 100-46, 101-53], B. Bhaskar (Kar) bt Haria 3-0 [100(94)-2, 100(91)-7, 100-42.
Group C: Geet Sethi (Guj) bt I.V. Rajiv (AP) 3-1 [100(53, 47)-4, 100(41)-96(53), 66-100(48), 100-48(48)], Brijesh Damani (WB) bt Sethi 3-0 [100(100)-37, 101(51)-42, 100(56)-90(51)], V. Subramaniam (Mah) bt Shekar Surve (RSPB) 3-1 [100-42, 100(91)-15, 94(43)-101(61), 101(57)-21].
Group D: Subrat Das (Ori) bt M.S. Reddy (RSPB) 3-2 [83-101, 58-101, 102-40, 101-84, 100-71], D. Sitwala (PSPB) bt Arun Agrawal (Mah) 3-1 [24-101, 103(97)-17, 100(95)-0, 100-48], Prem Prakash (TN) bt D. Raj Kumar (Kar) 3-2 [100(57)-83, 33-100 (53), 100(60)-39, 90(84)-100, 100-67], Arun Agrawal (Mah) bt Subrat Das (Ori) 3-0 [104(104)-0, 100-36, 100 (59)-12], Prakash bt Reddy (RSPB) 3-0 [100(52)-45, 100(67)-43, 100(100*)], Raj Kumar (Kar) bt Sitwala 3-1 [100-82(50), 101(55)-6, 69-100, 101(39)-88.
Group E: Manish Jain (WB) bt Ashok Shandilya (RSPB) 3-2 [0-101, 100-59, 100(50)-64, 86(40)-101(47), 101-76] and bt Ahsan-Ul-Haque (Ori) 3-0 [100(42)-61, 100-96(43), 100(51)-30], Shandilya bt Rajat Khaneja (Pun) 3-0 [102-67, 101(50)-39, 100(47)-74], Sourav Kothari (PSPB) bt Farhad Tengra (Mah) 3-0 [101(51)-81, 101(78)-71, 103(103)-10].
Group F: Shivam Arora (Bih) bt Sasha Sambi (Kar) 3-1 [97-101(53), 100-60, 101-53, 100-59], Rupesh Shah (Guj) bt Malkeet Singh (UP) 3-1 [88-102, 102(79)-73, 102(62)-5, 100(62)-53], Siddharth Parikh (RSPB) bt Sambi 3-0 [100-56, 100-60, 104 (70)-8].
Group G: Devendra Joshi (PSPB) bt Shakeel Ahmed (WB) 3-2 [101(64)-61, 98(60)-100, 11-100(100), 100-33, 101-91(72)], Rajesh Sharma (Del) bt Mridul Das (Asm) 3-0 [100(47)-51, 101-77, 101-67], Shyam Jagtiani (WB) bt Mridul Das 3-0 [102(75)-4, 102(58)-16, 101(101)-5].
Group H: Vishal Madan (Mah) bt Alok Kumar (PSPB) 3-1 [61-102(77), 100(98)-84, 101(73)-62(56), 101(68)-8] and bt Rafat Habib (RSPB) 3-0 [102-16, 101-60, 100-36], Parthiv Jhaveri (Guj) bt Habib 3-2 [23-102, 100-73, 102(50)-97, 10-101(48), 102(62)-58] and bt Vishal Madan (Mah) 3-0 [100-40, 100-85, 101-64], K. Venkatesham (RSPB) bt Habib 3-0 [101-40, 102- 41, 101(62)-18] and bt Himanshu Jain (AP) 3-0 [100(47)-69, 100(45, 48)-78, 102-59], Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Himanshu 3-1 [3-102(72), 100(100)-0, 101(43, 44)-47(45), 101(48)-40] and bt Jhaveri 3-0 [102(83)-13, 102(47)-58(42), 100-42].
