China's Anda Zhang was crowned the 2009 Asian Under-21 Champion today after a 5-1 demolition of Thialand's Noppom Saegkham and should now recieve Asia's nomination towards the main tour for the 2009/10 season. The youngster was one of the early favourites for the title and came through the group stages as the No.1 seed for the knockout stages.
The knockout's saw him put an end to one Thai player at a time defeating Yuttapop Pakpoj 4-3 in the quarters, Thanawat Thirapong 5-1 in the semi's and then ended Saeghkams hopes in the final thanks mainly to breaks of 40, 67 and 51 along the way with Saeghkams 84 in the third frame only good enough to bring some respectablility to the score line.
Host country India did have something to celebrate today however as Pankaj Advani defated Peter Gilcreest 5-3 in the final of the Asian Billiards Championships. (101(74)-50, 08-102(84), 100(98)-23, 20-101, 11-101(89), 100-86(84), 100(92)-00, 100(54)-39)
