Advani cruises to another win

Former world champion Pankaj Advani made short work of Paul Wilcock of Isle of Man for yet another win in a junior section league match of the World IBSF Under-21 and Seniors Snooker championship in Manama, Bahrain.

Advani romped home with a 4-0 scoreline in his favour 64-21, 45-35, 78-1, 76-66 in the Group UD match.

That the Indian took his opponent rather casually was obvious from the fact that he gave Wilcock, who is placed sixth in the group, ample space to score but managing a safe distance for a clean record.

After having an easy first frame, Advani won the second with a minimum margin and showed Wilcock his place in the third one but it was again a close affair in the fourth and last frame though Advani maintained his edge till the end. The 20-year-old also registered a break of 72.

The tournament is being played in a league-cum-knockout format among the junior (u-21) and senior (over-40) participants.

Unheralded Aditya Mehta matched the performance of his fancied compatriot Advani by thrashing Shannon Swain of New Zealand 4-0 in the group UA.

Mehta, who is placed second in the group, scored 63-48, 90-4, 72-8, 70-20 along with a break of 51. He will next play Ali Faisal Radhi of Bahrain.

In another interesting juniors match, Kobkit Palajin of Thailand set an impressive break mark of 116, perhaps the highest in the tournament so far, as he defeated Mohammad Al Assal of Egypt 4-2 in Group UF. He won 43-58, 2-70, 69-59, 125-9, 59-11, 81-25.

Among the seniors, former world billiards champion Geet Sethi defeated Mustafa Ali Atta of Egypt 3-1 in Group SB.

 Sethi won 65-37, 64-33, 31-61, 55-48 and will next take on Qatar's Mohammed Buainnein.