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Pankaj Advani edges out Aditya Mehta 6-3 in final to retain National snooker title
Dominant Pankaj Advani overcame a late fightback from Aditya Mehta en route to his 11th National snooker title in the 92nd edition of the premier championship in Bahadurgarh, Haryana, on Sunday.
The defending champion played the big points well to emerge a worthy 6-3 winner in the final. After a slow start, Advani grew in confidence as the match wore on to take a vice-like grip over the proceedings. He came up with a sizzling break of 133 in the fifth frame for a 4-1 lead in the best-of-11 frame title clash.
However, Aditya, whose form deserted him after a gritty 51 clearance in the opening frame, dug into his reserves and fought back in fine fashion. He clinched the sixth and seventh frames with useful breaks to make a fist of it.
The Mumbaikar could have taken the eighth frame as well but missed a regulation pink pot to the top left-hand pocket when leading 57-50 to let Advani off the hook. The champion from Bengaluru sank the pink and black to make it 5-3.
Pankaj Advani with the trophy on Sunday
Advani played a percentage game on the day. He scored whenever he got the opportunity and resorted to safety when he lost position. Even in the ninth frame, he punished Aditya’s poor safety with an early break of 37 and then kept his rival on a tight leash.
Aditya too was equal to the task with a couple of clever safeties. But on one such safety, he got an unlucky cannon off the top cushion on the red and left Advani on with the reds scattered on the table when trailing 1-63. The former champion then just walked across and congratulated Advani for his brilliant show.
Results (final): Pankaj Advani (PSPB) beat Aditya Mehta (PSPB) 6-3 (30-67 (51), 70 (70) -38, 77-6, 75-38, 141 (133) -0, 0-121 (51, 70), 6-67, 63-57, 63-1).
Third-place playoff: Ketan Chawla (MP) beat Laxman Rawat (PSPB) 4-3 (30-76, 8-66, 28-65, 70-53, 67-25, 47-39, 51-17).
Final standings: 1. Pankaj Advani; 2. Aditya Mehta; 3. Ketan Chawla; 4. Laxman Rawat; 5. Rayaan Razmi (Mah); 6. Sourav Kothari (PSPB); 7. Malkeet Singh (RSPB); 8. Dhvaj Haria (PSPB).