Chennai: Pankaj Advani won the Alliance Group-ASCA snooker tournament here on Sunday, winning a tense final frame after Manan Chandra had fought back valiantly from 1-4 and 3-5 down earlier.

The final chapter of the conflict hinged on a fortuitous moment; Manan, having gone 27-14 ahead, potted an acute green at the top right pocket, only to see the cue ball travel the length of the table to drop into the bottom right.

Taking four points from that foul, Pankaj immediately induced two more, placing the cue ball behind the green to leave Manan the task of connecting with one of the reds, all of them at the top right corner of the table, with cue ball first having to rebound off the left cushion and pierce a cordon of blue, black and pink balls.

With his score up to 28-27, Pankaj now had the ascendancy in a match of microscopic margins. He proceeded to breaks of 16, 8 and 8, which gave Manan little chance of clawing back.

He did have a chance to play another incandescent shot, however; at 27-60, snookered behind black near the top cushion, Manan rebounded off the left cushion, sending the final red off the table and into the bottom right pocket. Pankaj then cleared the table in three turns, angling a measured pink into the right side pocket.

Aggression

Almost all of the earlier frames marked a devil-may-care aggression from Manan and a waiting game from Pankaj, who combined clever defensive play with potting that was precise, but at crucial points lacking the cold perfection of his semifinal rout of Alok Kumar.

After the two had shared the first two frames, Manan missed a long, but straightforward red at the top left pocket while 45-43 up, handing Pankaj the first pot of a crucial 20 break, to pull away and go 2-1 ahead. He went 3-1 ahead in the fourth, clearing the table with a break of 87 after exchanging safeties with Manan relentlessly in a patient wait for an opening. An early 48 break gave Pankaj the fifth.

After reducing the deficit in the sixth, Manan almost threw away the seventh from 53-32 up, missing an ambitious acute brown into the bottom right pocket. Pankaj potted that, the blue and the pink to make it 51-53, and with only a simple black at the top right pocket to go, he missed, Manan heaving a sigh of relief as he thumped it in.

Pankaj took the eighth with a show of cunning at 36-57, rebounding the brown off the top cushion instead of making a tricky pot into the top left pocket, the cue ball going to its right to settle snugly behind the black.

Manan conceded three fouls attempting to make contact, and when Pankaj had his chance on the brown again, it was a far simpler pot, which he slid into the bottom right on his way to clearing the table to win 70-57.

History repeated itself in the tenth frame, which capped Manan’s comeback to level the match.

Trailing 9-54, Pankaj needed to clear the table to tie, and force a respotted black.

After having come clinically to 47-54, he missed the black at the top right pocket, and Manan potted it to bring it to 5-all.

The Result :

Pankaj Advani bt Manan Chandra 71-50, 36-59, 69-46, 114-14, 76-35, 35-57, 50-60, 70-57, 27-54, 47-61, 77-34.