Malkeet Singh emerged as the new National 6-Red snooker men’s champion after beating his RSPB colleague E. Pandurangaiah 7-5 in a closely fought best-of-13 frames final in the 90th National Billiards & Snooker Championships held at the Nehru Indoor Stadium on Saturday.
Malkeet earlier had a morale-boosting come-from-behind 6-5 victory over favourite and 26-time IBSF world champion Pankaj Advani (PSPB) in the last-four stage.
Pandurangaiah came into the title round high on confidence after putting it past the fancied Aditya Mehta (PSPB) 6-4 in the other semifinal. But it was former champion Advani’s upset, after having all but sealed the match at 5-3, that left the Indian cue sports community stunned. Malkeet won the final three frames 59-0, 43-1, 67-13 in spectacular fashion against Advani.
