Advani, Damani advance to knockouts in World Cup of snooker

Muscat, Nov 16 (PTI) Ace Indian cueists Pankaj Advani and Brijesh Damani advanced to the knockout rounds with wins from their respective groups of the World Cup of snooker here on Sunday.

Advani, owner of 28 world titles across cue sports disciplines, outclassed Hesham Alsaqer of Bahrain 3-0 for his second win in Group 'M'.

He had breaks of 74 and 56 in his lopsided victory. Advani had earlier beaten Oman's Hussain Allawati 3-0 in his opening match.

Damani, who missed out on the knockouts of the IBSF World Snooker in Doha last week, downed American Hasanain Alsultani 3-1 in his second match in Group 'J'.

The Kolkatan had demolished Ihab Al-Salih 3-0 in his opener.

Among other Indians, Aditya Mehta notched up one win in Group 'R', while Hussain Khan had one win and a loss apiece in Group 'K'.

Dhvaj Haria, the Indian 6-red snooker champion, bowed out of the individual event with two narrow losses in Group 'H'.

Results (Indians unless mentioned): Group H: Michal Szubarczyk (Pol) bt Dhvaj Haria 3-2 (59-33, 51-72, 22-54, 70-14, 66 (61) -17); Chi Kin Yeung (Chn) bt Dhvaj Haria 3-2 (54-43, 49-64, 6-81, 60-45, 56-26).

Group J: Brijesh Damani bt Hasanain Alsultani (US) 3-1 (76 (62) -28, 62-14, 54-55, 93-4); Brijesh Damani bt Ihab Al-Salih (Irq) 3-0 (85 (74) -1, 73-64, 72-29).

Group K: Hussain Khan bt Ahmed Nizam Uddin (Ban) 3-1 (120 (64) -7, 62-26, 56-65, 56-20); Firas Kamil Shaba (Irq) bt Hussain Khan 3-2 (63-29, 78 (56) -29, 28-91, 27-67 (50), 69-40).

Group M: Pankaj Advani bt Hesham Alsaqer (Bah) 3-0 (93 (74) -32, 96 (56) -4, 75-52); Pankaj Advani bt Husain Allawati (Oman) 3-0 (67-2, 78 (78) -1, 64-37).

Group R: Aditya Mehta bt Qasim Albalushi (Oman) 3-0 (84-12, 62-54, 73-6). PTI UNG AH AH