National Pool Championship 2026: Pankaj Advani Stuns Champion Shivam Arora 8-2, Enters 10-Ball Semifinals To Face Shahbaaz Adil Khan

Ludhiana (Punjab), April 3: In the middle of a brilliant run in his maiden pool nationals, Pankaj Advani, winner of the 9-ball event three days ago, powered into the semifinals of the 10-ball championships at the Rotary Bhawan here on Friday.

Advani dominates quarterfinal clash

Advani carried far too many guns for reigning champion Shivam Arora in the quarterfinals. His lopsided 8-2 victory helped him set up a last-four showdown with fellow PSPB cueist Shahbaaz Adil Khan. The latter prevailed by a similar margin over Punjab’s Sumesh Jhangra in the other quarters.

Other semifinalists decided

The other semifinal will be played between Railways’ Pushpender Singh and Aayush Kumar of Punjab. While Pushpender edged out Divya Sharma of Punjab 8-6, Aayush overcame Chetan Chabra of Telangana 8-7.

Advani proves his class again

The spectators expected plenty of fireworks in the last-eight clash between Advani and Shivam. Having suffered a reverse at the hands of Advani in 9-ball pool, most thought Shivam would come back hard at the debutant, who is the owner of 28 World titles in both billiards and snooker.

However, Advani had other ideas, he proved that his win over Shivam in 9-ball was not a flash in the pan, and he had the skill set and the tactical nous to rub shoulders with the best in pool as well. The Bengalurean was on song from the get-go, not giving his fancied rival much chance in the race-to-8 clash.

Shahbaaz cruises into semifinals

At the adjacent table, Shahbaaz was a trifle slow to start with. But once he got his eye in, the Kolkatan looked a different player altogether, potting brilliantly and showing immaculate cue ball control en route to a crushing victory.

Results (10-ball pool)

Men: Quarterfinals: Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Shivam Arora (Mah) 8-2; Shahbaaz Adil Khan (PSPB) bt Sumesh Jhangra (Pun) 8-2; Pushpender Singh (RSPB) bt Divya Sharma (Har) 8-6; Aayush Kumar (Pun) bt Chetan Chabra (Tel) 8-7.

Also Watch:

Pre-quarters: Advani bt Anurag Giri (MP) 8-3; Shivam bt Harpreet S. Grover (Del); Jhangra bt Kushal Chandrashekar (Kar) 8-5; Shahbaaz bt Ranveer Duggal (Chd) 8-5; Pushpender bt Harshit Sharma (MP) 8-2; Divya bt Nitin Sharma (Chd) 8-7; Chabra bt Dhruv Varma (Pun) 8-1; Aayush bt Abhinav Dhiman (Har) 8-5.