Pankaj, Geet off to winning start at World billiards

Advani defeated Austria's Martin Schmidt 874-149 in his opening fixture and then went on to win the second game against Martin Budge of Guernsey 732-183 in the Time Format.

Sethi put paid to the hopes of Jonny Evans of England 687-168 while Sitwala thrashed Ryan Mears of England 702-134 in his first game and hardly broke a sweat against compatriot Arantxa Sanchis to win 686-122 in Group C.

The only woman from India in the fray, national champion Sanchis, also lost her second game against Mears 206-368.

Another star Indian cueist, Devendra Joshi went down fighting against Michael Pearson of Australia 403-446 in his opening tie but recovered to win the next game against countrymate Jaiveer Dhingra 522-282.

 

For the first time, 18 cueists are participating from India under coach Subhash Agarwal.

Results of Indian players:

Dhruv Sitwala bt Ryan Mears 702-134; Arun Agarwal bt Phil Mumford 540-317; Nalin Patel bt Derek O' Neill 617-89; Pankaj Advani bt Martin Schmdt 874-147; Devendra Joshi lost to Michael Pearson 403-446; Jaiveer Dhingra lost to Michael Pearson 209-500; Sourav Kothari bt Phil Davis 602-121; Siddharth Parikh bt Jonathan Bagley 403-288; Geet Sethi bt Jonathan Evans 687-168; Alok Kumar lost to Martin Goodwill 220-453; Ashok Shandilya bt Roberet Hall 429-218; Arantaxa Sanchis lost to Ryan Mears 206-368; Balachandra Bhaskar bt Rick Kendall 581-142.