Advani, Merchant register wins

Indian cueists, Pankaj Advani and Yasin Merchant maintained their winning streaks as they won their respective group matches of the men’s IBSF World snooker championship here on Tuesday.

Indian cueists, Pankaj Advani and Yasin Merchant maintained their winning streaks as they won their respective group matches of the men’s IBSF World snooker championship here on Tuesday.

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The Bangalore-based Advani staved off a stiff challenge from Phillip Williams of Wales to carve out a 4-3 win, his third straight triumph in Group ‘A’

In Group ‘C’, Merchant trounced American Ahmed Aly 4-2 also for his third straight win. In Group D, Manan Chandra had a field day against Austrian Alexander Gauss, blanking him 4-0.

Among other Indians in the men section, Sandeep Gulati routed Ali Obaidly of Qatar 4-0, Shahbaz Khan spanked Pierre Jordaan of South Africa 4-1 and Brijesh Damani thumped Leonard Shanahan of Ireland 4-1.

In the masters section, India’s seasoned pro, Geet Sethi was eliminated when he went down to Clive Thomson of New Zealand. Sethi waged a grim battle before going down 2-3 to Thomson in the Group ‘B’ round robin clash.

Having lost the first two frames 42-50, 48-53, Sethi rallied to draw parity by winning the next two frames but Thomson prevailed in the decider, winning it 89-6.

Results - Men: Group A: Daniel Thorp (Aus) bt Moosa Saleem (Mau) 4-1; Sandeep Gulati (Ind) bt Ali Obaidly (Qat) 4-0; Pankaj Advani (Ind) bt Phillip Williams (Wal) 4-3. Group B: Supoj Saenla (Thai) bt Habib Sabah Habib (Bah) 4-0; Mohamed Awad (Egy) bt Mark Hannah (NZ) 4-0; Shahbaz Khan (Ind) bt Pierre Jordaan (RSA) 4-1.

Group C: Yasin Merchant (Ind) bt Ahmed Aly (USA) 4-2.