Mumbai: National champion Sourav Kothari was the toast of the day when he scored a brilliant break of 494, in the CCI Classic Billiards & Snooker Tournament on Sunday.

The reigning national champion, hit the competition’s highest break en route to a convincing 1047-269 win over Maharashtra state billiards champion Arun Agrawal.

Kothari was in dazzling form as he delighted with impressive top-table play and added a century break of 111 for his fourth straight win in the group that sealed his place in the knock out pre-quarter-finals.

"I could have gone further but I missed a difficult cannon. I was on my toes right through, because one can never be complacent against a billiards specialist like Arun Agrawal," explained Kothari.

The star player of India, Pankaj Advani registered three consecutive wins in his group against Satbir Narula, seasoned Chandresh Shah and World Professional No. 7 Nalin Patel.

Advani, the national snooker champion, warmed up with a break of 290 against Shah and 261 against Patel, apart from a slew of delightful century breaks.

"For the first time I played the spotted balls. The conditions at the CCI are very good for billiards and conducive for the big breaks," said Advani.

The other significant winners were twice world runner-up Dhruv Sitwala of PSPB and world bronze medalist Ashok Shandilya of Railways who missed a double century break by a solitary point.