Advani begins on a winning note

Pune: Former World Champion Pankaj Advani started his campaign with a century break and a convincing 3-1 win over D Bhuvaneshwaran at the Manisha National Billiards and Snooker Championship at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana on Sunday.

In the round robin league for the national billiards championship, Bengaluru-lad Advani, representing PSPB, scored a 32-100, 103-22, 100(100)-0, 101-35 win over Tamil Nadu`s Bhuvaneshwaran in a Group A league match. Another former world champion in fray Geet Sethi scored two back-to-back wins in Group C encounters. Sethi, representing Gujarat, thumped Anmoldeep Singh of Punjab (3-0) {101(47)-20, 100(98)-2, 101(59)-24 } and then Shekar Surve of Railway Sports Board (3-0) {101-31, 101 (78)-24, 102-82(52)} Former world professional billiards silver medalist Devendra Joshi thrashed Assam`s Mridul Das (3-0) {100(95)-0, 102(86)-0, 101(63)-12} in another Group C tie. In a Group D encounter another former IBSF world professional billiards silver medalist Dhruv Sitwala scored a (3-0) {102(52,50)-30, 100-57, 100-63} win over MS Reddy of RSPB. Asian gold Medalist Rafath Habib of RSPB ousted junior player Himanshu Jain of AP (3-1) {100-63, 64-101(53), 100-28, 101-37} in a group H match. PTI