Indian cueists impress: World snooker

Indian cueists continued to impress in the World Snooker Championship in Jiangmin city of China as five of the six players participating in the event won their respective ties on the third day of the flag-ship event.

Former Asian champion Yasin Merchant led the Indian charge, blanking Stephane Ochoiki of France 4-0 in Group F while national champion Pankaj Advani thrashed Dorj Bat Bekhbat of Mongolia in a group C tie by the same margin.

Alok Kumar won his Group H match comprehensively, beating Keng Kwang Chan of Singapore 4-0.

Merchant was at his aggressive best against the Frenchman as he registered breaks of 66, 92, 109 and 74 in consecutive frames to take the tie 90-35 107-1 118-14 92-24.

In other matches, the 19-year-old Advani recorded his second straight win by blanking Bekhbat 123-7, 76-8, 98-26, 72-17 while Alok beat Chan 66-30, 77-40, 81-37, 79-6.

The Indian ladies, who are participating in the championship at their own cost, were not to be left behind as R Uma Devi sored an impressive 53-28, 79-21, 25-61, 67-29 victory over Jeff Tan Been of Singapore and Chitra Magimairajan defeated Belgium's Cathy Dehaene 49-40, 29-54, 53-23, 56-41.

The only disappointment of the day came when national women's champion Vidya Pillai failed to put up a fight against world best Kelly Fisher and went down 0-3 in her second Group A tie.

Pillai lost the match 53-70, 27-79, 1-75.