Pankaj Advani enters Asian Snooker Tour knockout

Pankaj Advani

Nineteen-time world champion Pankaj Advani won both his league matches to move into the knock-out stages of the second leg of the Asian Snooker Tour here on Monday. After making semifinals in the first leg last month in Doha, Advani will be looking to better that performance by a couple of rounds. The unique format, 10-red snooker, is being applied in the three legs of the continental Tour. The final one is slated for India with details of it yet to be confirmed.

In his first match, Advani overcame Chinese challenger Pang Junxu 4-2. Later in the day, the Indian played exceptional snooker to whitewash Qatar's Ahmed Saif 4-0. Despite an opening break of 41, the Qatari missed leaving Advani an opening that would turn out to be decisive. Advani neatly put away a few colours to bring the first frame down to the deciding black ball. The Indian got the advantage and gained a 1-0 lead and never looked back.

In the second frame, he pieced together a frame-winning 52 break with Ahmed remaining on nought. The third frame was also one-sided but there was a fight in the fourth. Trailing 38-1, Advani cleared the table and won the frame by two points to confirm his qualification to the last-16 stage which commences tomorrow. The other Indians in the fray had a mixed day. Manan Chandra and Varun Madan lost their first matches 1-4 and 0-4 respectively while Kamal Chawla registered a narrow 4-3 win. Their final group tie takes place tomorrow, determining their fate in the tournament.

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