Pankaj Advani is top seed for CCI Snooker Classic; hoping to defend his title

India’s most decorated cue sports player, Pankaj Advani has been given the top seeding in the Rs 12.5 lakh prizemoney CCI Snooker Classic 2024, organised by the Cricket Club of India, which is scheduled to commence at the CCI’s Sir Wilson Jones billiards hall here on Monday.

Advani, who is the most successful cuesports player in the country with 27 World Championship crowns and is the defending champion in the CCI Snooker Classic 2024, is hoping to win back-to-back titles.

The CCI has proved to be quite a happy hunting ground for the articulate and strong-willed Advani, who last year clinched both the CCI Snooker Classic and CCI Billiards Classic titles. He is expected to face stiff opposition from a strong field of high-quality snooker players from the country and abroad.

India's National champion Saurav Kothari, former National champion Ishpreet Singh Chadda, currently the lone India participating in the Professional Snooker circuit in the United Kingdom, another former National champion Aditya Mehta, to name a few, are the other strong contenders for the title.

Besides, the Indian stars, a couple of overseas players, which includes World IBSF Masters champion Habib Subah from Bahrain, and a couple of England legends, will also aim to win the championship cheque of Rs three lakh. The runner-up will receive an award of Rs 1.5 lakh. The losing semifinalists would receive Rs 75,000 each and Rs 40,000 would be presented to each of the four losing quarterfinalists. Cash awards will be given to all players reaching the round of 64.

Former women's national champion Amee Kamani has also been directly seeded in the main draw.

The other players who are directly seeded into the main draw are Krish Bajaj, Digvijay Kadian, Anurag Giri, Rahul Sachdev, Shahyaan Razmi, Md. Husaain Khan, Saurav Kothari, Pushpender Singh, Anurag Bagri, Manan Chandra, Laxman Rawat, Dhvaj Haria, Kanishk Jhanjharia, Brijesh Damani, Kamal Chawla, Rayaan Razmi, Mudasir Ashiak, Paras Gupta, Shoaib Khan, Rajat Khaneja, Hasan Badami, Shahbaaz Khan, Faisal Khan, Alfie Lee, Nikhil Ootam.