Sports
National Snooker: Pankaj Advani, Amee Kamani clinch titles
Ace cueist and 12-time world
champion Pankaj Advani Saturday once again clinched the 26th national
title of his glittering career when he went past promising cueist Varun
Madan 6-3 to win the National Snooker Championship here at the Bengal
Rowing Club.
Indore's Amee Kamani on the other hand won her
maiden title when she defeated experienced Vidya Pillai in the Ladies
Snooker finals.
This was the fourth time in his career that Advani has won both the Billiards and Snooker National Titles.
In
the men's final, Varun Madan, the 24-year-old from Delhi, had an
amazing journey as he made his way from the qualifiers to challenge the
reigning champion Advani. This was Madan's maiden appearance in the
senior national final.
Advani, who fought a tough semi-final
battle Friday with Dharminder Lilly, made his intentions clear from the
start as he won the first two frames 83-15 and 73-35 with breaks of 45
and 54 in each. Madan struck back, pocketing the third, fifth and
seventh frames to make it 3-4.
However, the 12-time world
champion was unstoppable from there on he did not give Madan any chance
clinching the eighth frame posting a break of 74 before clinching the
issue in the next with an 81 break with the final scoreline read
83(45)-15, 73(54)-35, 27-86(57), 79(47)-00, 13-87(62), 76(70)-35, 48-72,
74(74)-00, 96(81)-09.
Terming the seventh frame loss a "wake-up
call", Advani said: "I just smiled at it and told myself 'it's part of
the game... Just pick up the next frame and once it become 5-3 he will
be under more pressure as I needed just one more frame'."
The
29-year-old ace cueist from Bengaluru, who had won the senior national
billiards last week, thus capped a memorable two-week stint in Kolkata
winning his fourth double, and the first since 2009.
"With each
passing year, I feel to achieve the double is becoming tougher with so
many specialists in either billiards or snooker. But I'm somewhere in
between. I'm glad that I remained unbeaten," Advani said after clinching
his seventh senior national title.
Advani also has seven senior national billiards titles, taking the total count to 26 in all age groups.
Playing
in both the formats for last two weeks had been quite hectic and Advani
said he was looking forward to take some rest now.
Showering praise on Varun Madan, Advani said the Delhi lad would be tough to beat once he becomes smart tactically.
"We've
been good friends, we used to hang out in England. I'm very happy for
him for making his maiden final. He'll have really good years of
snooker. This will be a learning experience him. He was not experienced
as Dharminder Lilly (in the semis), so was not able to trouble me
tactically," he said.
"I thought his attacking play was phenomenal. I think once he steps up his tactical side he'll be tough to beat."
In the ladies snooker final, for Kamani, it was a dream comes true as she won over experienced campaigner Pillai of Karnataka.
Kamani won the first frame comfortably with the score reading 63-39, but Pillai put it across in the next, winning 21-59.
In the next two frames, Pillai failed to capitalise on a streak of good work by failing to pot the black.
Kamani
took advantage and went ahead. Though Pillai fought back to win the
fifth game 32-64, Kamani eased past her in the sixth and final frame
with the narrowest possible margin, winning 45-44.
Kamani, who won her maiden Senior National title today, had won two international honours earlier.
She
was part of the Bronze Medal winning team in the IBSF World Team & 6
Red Snooker Championship 2014 held at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt last year.
She was also the silver medallist in the Australian Open Women’s
Snooker Championship 2014 held in Sydney.
"Though it was my first
National Final, I think I played my natural game. The experience of
playing in the two international tournaments last year added to my
confidence," said Kamani.
Scores:
Amee Kamani (Madhya Pradesh) beat Vidya Pillai (Karnataka) 4-2
63-39, 59-21, 60-47, 57-32, 32-64, 45-44