Asian Billiards Championship: Pankaj Advani beats Yeo Teck Shin in opener; Vidya Pillai, Rupesh Shah notch wins

Yangon: Multiple-time world champion Pankaj Advani made a rampaging start to his title defence at the 17th Asian Billiards Championship, outclassing Singapore’s Yeo Teck Shin 4-0 in the opening match of the men’s event on 19 March. [caption id=“attachment_3779497” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of India’s Pankaj Advani. Reuters[/caption] Advani, who has won the world championship 19 times in his career, barely broke a sweat as he dumped Shin with the help of a 98 break and three consecutive centuries in the best-of-seven 100-up encounter. Rupesh Shah too came up with an identical win against Indonesia’s Marlando Sihombing but with one century and a 53 break. The other men’s players participating from India are Nationals runner-up Dhvaj Haria and B Bhaskar. In the women’s snooker individual event, India’s Vidya Pillai and Amee Kamani came up with contrasting wins against Myanmar cueists. While Pillai scored a 2-1 win against Thandar Maung, Kamani notched up facile 2-0 victory in the league stage versus Ngwe Hlaing. Keerath Bhandaal, on the other hand, got the better of compatriot Varshaa Sanjeev 2-1 in a closely fought battle. In the under-21 snooker category, the only Indian to play on the first day was Sparsh Pherwani who defeated Myanmar’s Thaw Zain Htet in the deciding frame 4-3.