Smooth sailing for Advani, Vidya slips

PANAJI: World champion Pankaj Advani lived up to his numero uno status by winning all the three matches in the national billiards selection tournament at Clube Tennis De Gaspar Dias on Thursday.
While Pankaj blanked Sourav Kothari, Rupesh Shah and Dhruv Sitwala by an identical margin of 3-0 to remain the only unbeaten player, it was torrid time for second seed Geet Sethi who lost his first two matches to Shah and Kothari.
The eight time world billiards champion, Sethi, however, posted his first win against Karnataka's B Bhaskar.
Other player who is steadily climbing up the ladder is former world number two Sitwala of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board.
After losing to Pankaj, Dhruv quickly got down to business and comfortably defeated Bhaskar, Kothari and Shah to occupy the second spot at the end of the third session of play.
National ladies snooker champion Vidya Pillai, who suffered a surprise defeat at the hands of Neeta Sanghvi yesterday, consolidated her position today by posting two good wins against Meenal Thakur and Suniti Damani.
At the end of the sixth session of the second day's play, fourth seed Anuja Chandra of PSPB led the ranking table with four wins in four matches that she played against sibling Meenal Thakur, second seed M Chitra, Suniti Damani and Neeta Sanghvi respectively.
Neena Pravin was another cueist who showed an impressive performance by outwitting second seed M Chitra 2-0.
Points earned by the players in this tournament will be used by the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India (BSFI) for nominating Indian entries to various international meets.
Results: Billiards (Men): Dhruv Sitwala beat Bhaskar 3-0, Devendra Joshi beat Sourav Kothari 3-1, Pankaj Advani bt Rupesh Shah 3-0, Sourav Kothari bt Geet Sethi 3-2, Dhruv Sitwala bt Rupesh Shah 3-1, Pankaj Advani bt Dhruv Sitwala 3-0, B Bhaskar bt Devendra Joshi 3-0, Rupesh Shah bt Devendra Joshi 3-0, Geet Sethi bt Bhaskar 3-1, Dhruv Sitwala bt Sourav Kothari 3-0.
Ladies Snooker results: Chitra M bt Suniti Damani 2-1, Neena Pravin bt Neeta Sanghvi 2-1, Vidya Pillai bt Meenal Thakur 2-1, Anuja Chandra bt Chitra M 2-1 and Neena Pravin bt Suniti Damani 2-1.