National champion Pankaj Advani booked a berth to the World snooker championship, to be played in China in October, by thrashing Manan Chandra 5-2 in the semi-finals of the selection tournament, in Delhi on Wednesday.

Asian Games gold medalist and two-time Asian snooker champion Yasin Merchant will take on Alok Kumar in the other semi-final tomorrow to decide the second participant for the championship.

The 18-year-old Advani adopted an aggressive approach from the beginning as he played all the shots in his repertoire to completly outplay his opponent.

Advani made his intensions clear in the very first frame as he registered a break of 45 to take the frame 68-5. But the local lad levelled the score in the next, 20-54.

The youngest national champion then took control and won the next two frames, 115-16 60-50, to take a comfortable lead.

A slight loss in concenatration saw him losing the fifth frame 46-83 but Advani made amends by ensuring that Chandra did not get any more chances to stage a comeback.

Earlier, in a group A encounter, Advani took 'revenge' of his defeat in the final of the S Chand Invitational Tournament last week, defeating Alok Kumar 4-2 to top the group.

Kumar, who had bad day today, failed to counter the aggressive approach of his opponent and had to rest content with the second spot in the group.

In another tie, Merchant blanked Siddharth Parikh 4-0 to remain unbeaten in Group B.

Results:

Semi-final: Pankaj Advani beat Manan Chandra 5-2 (68-5, 20-54, 115-16, 60-50, 46-83, 69-52, 70-14)

Group A: Pankaj Advani beat Alok Kumar 4-2 (75-62, 78-12, 20-66, 7-77, 79-47, 72-1)

Group B: Yasin Merchant beat Siddharth Parikh 4-0 (70-8, 76-34, 74-5, 67-8).