Advani, Pherwani bow out in men’s 15-Red snooker round-of-32

Chennai: Sourav Kothari beat his PSPB colleague and 26-time IBSF world champion Pankaj Advani 5-1 in the men’s 15-Red snooker round-of-32 of the 90th National Billiards & Snooker Championships at the Nehru Indoor Stadium here on Friday.

Kothari, who lost to Advani in the world billiards final in Doha last month, won the best-of-9 frames 64-50, 62-33, 23-51, 80-56, 84-34, 70-16.

Meanwhile, defending champion Kamal Chawla (RSPB) defeated Luv Kukreja (Delhi) 5-2 to move into the pre-quarterfinals. Joining Chawla in the round-of-16 was his RSPB colleague Md Hussain who stunned last year’s runner-up Sparsh Pherwani (Maharashtra) 5-3.

Maharashtra’s Shahbaaz Khan created a ripple by packing off last year’s semifinalist Brijesh Damani (PSPB) 5-3.