Sixteen-time world champion Pankaj Advani will lead a star-studded lineup at the 3rd Kolkata Open National Invitation Snooker Championship 2017 which begins here tomorrow.
The event, to be organised by the West Bengal Billiards Association, will be held from January 3 to 8 at the Bengal Rowing Club.
Advani, the country's only professional snooker player, and the current national champion Aditya Mehta, Manan Chandra, Alok Kumar, Kamal Chawla and Dharminder Lilly are among the big names who will be seen in action in the tournament.
Giving them competition will be Kolkata cueists, led by Sourav Kothari and Asian Games Silver medallist Brijesh Damani and the current top two from Bengal -- Benay Agarwal and Shoiab Khan.
Sandeep Gulati, Pushpender Singh, Shahbaaz Khan, Lucky Vatnani, Sidharth Parikh, Faisal Khan, Laxman Rawat and Manish Jain are the other stars on show. Anil Poddar, Rajesh Tulsian, Ravi Goenka, Rohit Rajgharia, Mudit Poddar and Shreevardhan Poddar will be the players from the Bengal Rowing Club who will participate in the tournament.
The players will be divided into six groups of four players each and the top 16 will qualify for the knock-out stage.
A Pro-Am tournament will also be held concurrently in which stars like Pankaj Advani, Aditya Mehta, Manan Chandra, Sourav Kothari, Brijesh Damani, Kamal Chawla, Dharminder Lilly and Lucky Vatnani will team up with amateur players Rajesh Tulsian, Ravi Goenka, Pijush Bhagat, Sunil Saraogi, Manish Singhania, Kingshuk Saha, Rajeev Jhunjhunwala and Rohit Rajgharia to represent city-based corporate teams.
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