National 6-Red Snooker Championship: Pankaj Advani, Amee Kamani successfully defend titles

Chennai: Pankaj Advani of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board added another national title to his collection of trophies, beating Railways’ Kamal Chawla 7-3 on Saturday in the final of the 7th National 6-Red Snooker Championship in Chennai. In the women’s section, Amee Kamani defended her crown, beating Karnataka’s Vidya Pillai 4-1 in the summit clash. [caption id=“attachment_3779497” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of India’s Pankaj Advani. Reuters[/caption] For multiple times world champion, Advani, the triumph took his count of national titles to 30. This is also his third 6-Red national title, having won earlier in 2010 and 2016. In the best of 13 frame final, Chawla opened with a stupendous break of 65 to take the lead. Advani bounced back to take the next to get back on level terms. Chawla came up with a break of 45 to take the third to jump into the lead again. Advani hit back strongly to take the next two to go 3-2 up. His rival fought back to equalise at three frames each. After a hard-fought seventh frame, the PSPB cueist brooked no stopping and stormed to yet another triumph. “It feels great to end the year on a high. It was an important tournament as the ranking enables us to represent India in the Asian championship. I’m glad that I did it and won in style,” he said after the match. “Kamal is a great player, and it was never easy to best him here in the finals,” he added. Earlier in the semifinals, Advani defeated Sourav Kothari of PSPB 6-2 in a best of 11 frames encounter while Chawla beat Akshay Kumar of Uttar Pradesh 6-5. Advani, Chawla, Kothari and Akshay Kumar have qualified to represent India in the Asian 6-Red Snooker championship to be held next year. The women’s final saw Amee Kamani dominate against Vidya after dropping the first frame, to run out a 4-1 winner. She also made a highest break of 68 in the tournament. Results: Men: Final: Pankaj Advani bt Kamal Chawla 7-3 (0-65(65), 66-5, 0-66(45), 40-9, 71-0, 1-50, 42-37, 70(70)-0, 41(41)-1, 49-14). Semifinals: Kamal Chawla bt Akshay Kumar 6-5 (48-0, 9-48, 15-53, 04-34, 37-40, 62(61)-00, 40-17, 19-52, 68(68)-0, 38-13, 33-13); Pankaj Advani bt Sourav Kothari 6-2 (28-40, 49-0,9-39, 41-17, 57-47, 38-15, 47(44)-08, 48-21). Final placings: 1. Pankaj Advani; 2. Kamal Chawla; 3. Sourav Kothari; 4. Akshay Kumar; 5. Sandeep Gulati (Delhi); 6. Ishpreet Singh (Maharashtra); 7. Varun Madan (Delhi); 8. R Girish (RSPB). Women: Final: Amee Kamani bt Viday Pillai 4-1 (24-29, 49-28, 58-0, 45-32, 34-0). Final placings: 1. Amee Kamani; 2. Vidya Pillai; 3. Umadevi R; 4. Sunita Damani.