Pankaj Advani breezes into World snooker semis

Pankaj Advani’s quest for a 15th World title got a huge fillip when he made it to the semi-finals in IBSF World Snooker Championship in Hurghada, Egypt, on Friday.

The ace cueist, the only Indian in the fray in the men's category, proved too good for Alex Borg of Malta in a 6-0 victory to improve upon his showing at the last championship when he was ousted in the quarter-finals in Bengaluru by Yan Bingtao 4-6 of China.

Advani registered a century break in the fifth frame of the best-of-11-frame contest to win 70-62, 112(57)-0, 107(90)-14, 83(50)-46, 114(108)-12, 64-27.

He will take on Lukas Kleckers of Germany, who got the better of Greg Kasey of Ireland 6-4 [66-55, 73-49, 83-2, 73-16, 28-72, 70-19, 35-49, 1-115, 8-81, 72-45].

In September Advani won the IBSF World Billiards (Time format) Championship, beating Singapore's Peter Gilchrist 2408-1240 in the final to claim his 14th World title.

In the women's competition, India’s Amee Kamani, bronze medallist at the IBSF Ladies World 6-red Snooker, which was held in Karachi earlier this year, beat compatriot Chitra Magimairaj 4-3 to enter the semi-finals.

In the Masters category, Rafath Habib failed to reach the medal round as he could not get past Jason Peplow of Malta.

Image: Pankaj Advani