Ludhiana, Apr 3: Ace cueist Pankaj Advani, winner of the 9-ball event three days ago, powered into the semifinals of the 10-ball national championships, stunning reigning champion Shivam Arora here on Friday.
Advani carried far too many guns for Arora in the quarterfinals, reflected in his lopsided 8-2 victory and it set up a last-four showdown with fellow PSPB cueist Shahbaaz Adil Khan.
The latter prevailed by a similar margin over Punjab’s Sumesh Jhangra in the other quarters.
The other semifinal will be played between Railways’ Pushpender Singh and Aayush Kumar of Punjab. While Pushpender edged out Divya Sharma of Punjab 8-6, Aayush overcame Chetan Chabra of Telangana 8-7.
Advani was on song from the get-go, not giving his fancied rival much chance in the race-to-8 clash.
At the adjacent table, Shahbaaz was a trifle slow to start with.
But once he got his eye in, the Kolkatan looked a different player altogether, potting brilliantly and showing immaculate cue ball control en route to a crushing victory. (PTI)
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