Pankaj Advani to meet Bhaskar in final

Pankaj Advani has positioned himself for a sixth National billiards title. According to a report in The Hindu, the defending champion and the top seed took control of the semifinal against Sourav Kothari right from the first game and raced to a 4-0 win in under two hours in the Manisha National billiards & snooker championship at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana here on Thursday. Advani will meet Balachandra Bhaskar in the title match; a repeat of last year's final at Chennai. Bhaskar, trailing 2-3, beat Alok Kumar in a seven-game thriller, taking the last two games with as many century breaks.

Asian champion P. Harikrishna made another stride towards his maiden title in the Group B of Tata Steel chess tournament by beating Daniele Vocaturo of Italy in the tenth round here. The Hindu reports that with his sixth victory in the tournament, Harikrishna now has eight points out of a possible ten and stayed a full point ahead of Grandmaster Alexander Motylev of Russia who defeated Ernst Sipke of Holland and local star Erwin L'Ami who won a marathon against Viktorija Cmilyte of Lithuania.

According to a report in The Hindu, Indian Bank prevailed over BSNL in four sets in the SRM-CDVA senior division volleyball league championships at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium on Thursday. Indian Bank won 25-13, 26-16, 22-25, 25-17. In another match, Panimalar beat TN Police 25-22, 25-19, 27-25. In the women's section, JBAS defeated Sivanthi Club 25-8, 20-25, 25-22.