Aditya Mehta, Sourav Kothari teams in final, Pankaj Advani crashes out

KOLKATA: Aditya Mehta and Ravi Goenka set up a final clash against Sourav Kothari and Ankit Kariwala as world champion Pankaj Advani crashed out of the quarters of the Pro-Am event of the Second Kolkata Open National Invitation Snooker Championship here today.

The team of eight times world champion, Advani and Rajesh Tulsian was stunned by the defending champions Siddharth Parikh and Anil Poddar in the event that brings a pro and an amateur together.

But the duo's dream run was snapped in the semis by Indian Open silver medalist and India No 2 Aditya Mehta and Ravi Goenka who registered an emphatic 3-1 win.

Mehta and Goenka started off winning the first two frames in quick succession 61-06, 60-09, but gave away in the tightly contested third frame 41-51, before grabbing the final frame again by a wide margin 72-06.

In the other semis, Sourav Kothari and Ankit Kariwala turned the tables on Brijesh Damani and Shreevardhan Poddar 3-2 in a contest that went down the wire.

Like last year, Advani will skip the five-day main event beginning tomorrow.