Advani begins with two wins

Chennai, December 20: Multiple times world champion Pankaj Advani got his campaign underway on Wednesday with two wins in the main draw of the 7th National 6-Red snooker tournament here. He defeated Abhimanyu Gandhi (4-0) and R Girish (4-2) in the group matches.

Meanwhile, R Girish of RSPB ousted local favourite and junior national champion S Shrikrishna of Tamil Nadu 4-2 in his first group match.

Digvijay Kadian whitewashed former Asian gold medallist Manan Chandra 4-0 in his first match. Earlier, Digvijay had shocked Dhruv Sitwala by defeating him in the qualifying rounds. Dhruv made the first maximum break of 75 in the tournament against D Rajkumar.

Kadian whitewashed former Asian gold medallist Manan Chandra 4-0 in his first match. Multiple times national champion Alok Kumar has won both the matches he has played and leads in his group.

Local favourite and former Asian Games gold medallist Rafath Habib of RSPB edged past Vinayak Agarwal in the deciding frame 4-3 in his first match. Tamil Nadu cueists G Prabhu, Vijay Nichani, K Rakesh, S Shrikrishna, R Pranit, S A Saleem and J Varun Kumar qualified for the group stage.

Results: Dhruv Sitwala bt Pranit R 4-3 (29-21, 14-37, 42-4, 0-36, 1-33, 38-34, 39-25); Dhruv Singh bt S A Saleem 4-1 (46-15, 34-23, 2-54, 47-30, 43-34); Vijay Nichani bt G Prabhu 4-3 (7-39, 50-25, 15-44, 60-10, 26-40, 44-36, 40-19); Alok Kumar bt K Rakesh 4-1 (37-11, 53-17, 29-36, 45-0, 40-30); Vinayak Agarwal bt J Varunkumar 4-2 (43-18, 42-15, 37-5, 16-44, 27-34, 47-32). Pankaj Advani bt Abhimanyu Gandhi 4-0 (34-30, 62 (53)-0, 42 (42)-7, 46-10); R Girish bt S Shrikrishna 4-2 (51-19, 0-66 (66), 37-28, 65-0, 14-27, 60 (60)-0); Ishpreet Singh Chadha bt Dhruv Sitwala 4-1 (42-19, 49-8, 48 (48)-0, 20-44, 38-14); Pranit bt D Rajkumar 4-1 (31-15, 36-10, 14-40, 36-11, 42-9); Anurag Giri bt Siddharth Parikh 4-0 (31-7, 41-0, 43-25, 44-36). Alok Kumar bt Daksh Reddy 4-0 (40-6, 55-6, 34-29, 29-16); Rafath Habib bt Vinayak Agarwal 4-3 (34-15, 8-37, 28-25, 40-55, 28-41, 38-13, 31-19); Aneesh Saini bt Pandurangaiah 4 - 0 (37-7, 40-2, 46-14, 42-13); Digvijay Kadian bt Manan Chandra 4 - 0 (33-13, 46-0, 41-16, 52-20). Vijay Nichani bt Mukund Bharadiya 4-3 (33-24, 42-31, 34-35, 13-42, 16-52, 61 (61)-0, 40-27); Pankaj Advani bt R Girish 4-2 (32-39,42-16,44-0,23-48,45(45)-0).