World Snooker Championship: Advani storms into knockout stage

Bangalore: India’s Pankaj Advani faced few problems in defeating Finland’s Antti Silvo 4-1 in a Group D tie to storm into the knockout stages of the IBSF World Snooker Championship here today. Opening the match with a century plus break, seven-time world champion Advani outplayed Silvo 120-3, 47-67, 75-5, 65-17, 74-67 to move into the knockout stage which starts with the round of 32. Earlier, in another league tie, Advani stamped his class when he crushed Polish rival Marcin Nitschke 101-1, 61-23, 100-3, and 108-23. Another top Indian cueist, Yasin Merchant, is on the threshold of booking his berth in the knockout stage, though he went down to England’s Martin O’Donnel 3-4 in a see-saw duel. He lost 12-73, 29-56, 66-54, 77-1, 66-4, 38-77, 24-80. Merchant has to defeat Syria’s Omar Alkojah, who has had a mixed tournament so far, to advance. Alkojah, beaten by Martin 4-2 yesterday, bounced back today to defeat Sweden’s Bairaq Al-Urfy 4-1. [caption id=“attachment_143990” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Advani in action. PTI”]  [/caption] In a hard-fought group E tie, India’s Alok Kumar rallied after losing the first frame against Canada’s Jason Williams to score his second win in three matches. In other matches, Junior National Champion Lalrina Renthlei pulled off his first win of the tournament beating France’s Gregory Kopec 70-25, 55-67, 43-67, 76-53, 47-39, 1-77, 74-22 in group F, while compatriot I H Manudev lost to Iran’s Hossein Vafaei Ayouri 32-72, 11-76, 42-73, and 0-77 in a group G tie. Anuj Uppal of India lost to Ireland’s Rodney Goggins 37-80, 63-33, 11-55, 16-81, 14-75. Compiling 141, Saleh Mohammad of Afghanistan defeated Rusia’s Vladimir Bykov 4-0. In the morning session, Manan Chandra lost to Kevin Van Hove of Belgium 14-65, 21-71, 48-57, 77-27, 54-66, 23-70. But Kamal Chawla and Brijesh Damani provided the Indian fans a reason to cheer when they defeated Joris Maas of The Netherlands and Craig Macgillivray of Scotland respectively. Playing his group P encoutner, Chawla notched up his second win thrashing Maas 79-15, 67-53, 55-64, 52-47, 70-60. In Group L, Damani beat Craig 79-47, 60-45, 3-116, 76-10, 47-76, 50-60, 93-00. Hong Kong’s Au Chi Wai beat India’s Neeraj Kumar 6-62, 82-2, 5-83(69), 66-30, 74-32, 121-03. Brendan O’Donoghue of Ireland comfortably defeated Toh Chee Keong of Singapore 4-0 while Australia’s Vinnie Calabrese breezed past Germany’s Karl Heinz Beggel 4-1. PTI