Pankaj Advani breezes into last 16 of 7th National 6-Red Snooker Championship

Chennai: Defending champion Pankaj Advani blanked Pandurangaiah by five frames to nil to advance to the last 16 of the 7th National 6-Red Snooker Championship. Also advancing were former Asian billiards champion Sourav Kothari, who ended the run of Lucky Vatnani, winning 5-1. In another match, Varun Madan defeated former Asian billiards champion Dhruv Sitwala 5-3 to move up. [caption id=“attachment_3779497” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of India’s Pankaj Advani. Reuters[/caption] Advani, the 18-time world champion, started slowy and was trailing in the first frame, but he cleared the table in the end to clinch the frame. He did not look back after that as he took the next four to win in an hour’s time. Ishpreet Singh Chadha pulled off an upset, beating former world and Asian champion Rupesh Shah 5-4, taking the final frame 41-27. He took the first two frames in quick time with attacking play. Shah came back strongly in the third frame with a phenomenal break of 71. Ishpreet retaliated by winning the next two consecutive frames to lead by 4-1. Rupesh held his nerve and played his best to level it at 4-4 with brilliant safety play and potting. In the deciding the frame Ishpreet made a break of 41 to secure his win. Results: Vinayak Agarwal bt Digvijay Kadian 5-4 (15-38, 30-5, 36-7, 30-40, 8-46, 41-17, 50-17, 12-43, 32-7); Ishpreet Singh Chadha bt Rupesh Shah 5-4 (59-7, 59-0, 0-71 (71), 46-9, 55 (55)-8, 22-34, 32-40, 13-40, 41 (41)-27); Varun Madan bt Dhruv Sitwala 5-3 (16-43, 39-6, 33-29, 8-36, 35-9, 31-32, 37-7, 45-13); Sourav Kothari bt Lucky Vatnani 5-1 (40-8, 65 (41)-4, 30-10, 8-55, 42-14, 35-20). Sandeep Gulati bt Yogesh Kumar 5-2 (1-72 (51), 34-0, 38-10, 18-31, 44-9, 41-8, 37-22); Sahil Nayyar bt Md Hassan Khan 5-3 (27-33, 44-22, 45 (41)-8, 57-14, 40-33, 16-34, 28-37, 34-8); Pushpender Singh bt Rajat Khaneja 5-3 (41-7, 39-5, 27-36, 12-37, 41 (41)-0, 33-43, 47-21, 32-16); Pankaj Advani bt Pandurangaiah 5-0 (46-33, 67 (41)-0, 74 (70)-0, 52-9, 34-23).