PSPB's Sourav Kothari picked up his maiden senior billiards national title at the Manisha Billiards and Snooker Nationals after beating experienced Alok Kumar here today.
Sourav captured his maiden national billiards title by beating Alok Kumar 5-3.
Kothari clinched the title in great style, with an unbeaten break of 126, that left Alok stranded on three national titles.
Kothari swooped on an Alok mistake when on 61 and produced an unbeaten 126-break to clinch the issue at 17-152 (62,56),150(73)-71,104-151 (112),151(59,83)-56 (56),150(110)- 58,147(136)-151 (120),151(78)-81 (62),151(126)-61.
In the senior snooker qualifiers two upsets were seen on the second day of the event. The first was a shocker as a young lad from Punjab Nitin Gupta ousted veteran Railways cueist R Grish, though till the end it was anybody's game.
Both the players insisted that they would be not left behind as both players gave away fouls one after the other. If Grish gave a foul then Nitin insisted on returning the favour, but ultimately, it was Grish who had to bid adieu to the city of Nawabs.
At the same time on table no. 4, it was Maharastra's Jaivir Dhingra, who said goodbye to the tournament after losing to local lad Anubhav Gerg 2-3.
