CHENNAI: It was a bit of a surprise for the cue fans of the country on Saturday as Malkeet Singh emerged as the new National 6-red snooker men’s champion at the 90th national billiards and snooker championship here in Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium Chennai. In a neck-to-neck contest, Malkeet overcame his RSPB mate Pandurangaiah for 7-5 in bestof- 13 frame finals. It was the third final and the first victory in the senior category of nationals for the cueist from UP.
Malkeet, who could not cross the line on the last two occasions in 15-red snooker national finals, was lucky this time to win the national title in 6-red snooker. He approached the final with full confidence by beating the ace cueist Pankaj Advani (PSPB) in semifinals, who lifted the IBSF world championship last month in Doha. Advani was also part of the team when Malkeet bagged his first international gold medal at Asian Team Snooker Championship at Kyrgyzstan back in 2017.
“First of all, I want to thank God for giving me this victory, and my parents for supporting me, and RSPB and of course, TNBSA for organising such a wonderful tournament,” Malkeet told this daily. “It was a very good final for me. I won the semifinal for 6-5. I was very tired after playing the semifinal with Pankaj and he (Pandurangaiah) was very good. The match was going neck-to-neck. I was leading 4-2, and then he made it to 4-4. After that, I made 6-4, then he made 6-5. After that, I secured a 7-5 victory. (I’m) very happy to win the title after beating Pankaj,” Malkeet said.
The Andhra resident RSPB cueist Pandurangaiah beat the ace cueist Aditya Mehta (PSPB) for 6-4 to reach the finals before falling short against Malkeet after fighting hard. “It was an awesome feeling to beat Aditya Mehta in the semifinal. I had a great experience by playing the final with Malkeet. I lost the match but I played well,” Pandurangaiah said. Malkeet, the cueist from Lucknow, thinks that Chennai is lucky for him where he bagged his first national championship.
“I think Chennai is lucky for me this time. Till now, I have won my league matches in 15- red snooker, two matches I’ve played and I’ve won that. I’m looking forward to the other matches,” Malkeet said, before adding that he is also aiming to win the 15-red snooker too. He swept the second league game in 15-red snooker for 4-0 Mustaq Khan (TLG) on Monday.