Malkeet Singh wins national 6-Red snooker men's title, upsets Pankaj Advani

Malkeet Singh won the National 6-Red snooker men’s title, beating his RSPB colleague E Pandurangaiah in Sunday's final at the ongoing National Billiards and Snooker Championships in Chennai.

Malkeet handed Pandurangaiah a 7-5 defeat in the best-of-13-frames final. This win by Malkeet came after he staged an upset 6-5 win over favourite and 26-time world champion Pankaj Advani in the semifinal.

Pandurangaiah reached the final high on confidence after edging past much fancied Aditya Mehta (PSPB) 6-4 in the other semifinal.

Even though Malkeet won the final, his win against Advani surprised everyone.

Malkeet emerged victorious in the final three frames 59-0, 43-1, 67-13 in a sensational fashion against Advani to register the greatest upset in the event.

“Malkeet held his nerve and got the better of me towards the end,” said Advani, last edition’s runner-up, who later also lost the third-place playoff to Mehta.

In the women’s 6-Red snooker, defending champion Vidya Pillai of Karnataka will spearhead a strong quarterfinal field that also has the reigning IBSF world U-21 snooker champion Keerthana Pandian, also from Karnataka, and runner-up Anupama Ramachandran of Tamil Nadu.