Cueist Advani qualifies for Indian Open

Multiple World Champion Pankaj Advani led a field of five players who qualified for the 2015 Indian Open World Ranking Snooker Tournament wildcard entries here Thursday.

Others to qualify were India No.3 Brijesh Damani, Faisal Khan, Neeraj Kumar, Dharminder Lilly and Sumit Talwar.

In the qualifiers, which concluded at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana here, Faisal shocked India No.2 Kamal Chawla 4-2 in a two-hour match with a break of 59 in the sixth frame.

In another interesting match, Lilly of Punjab blossomed late in the seventh frame to scrape past Laxman Rawat of Maharashtra 4-3.

In another closely fought match, Talwar from Chandigarh upset seasoned former National Champion Alok Kumar of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) 4-3, aided by a 46 clearance in the final frame.

Advani of PSPB secured an easy win over Rafat Habib of Railways 4-0 while teammate Damani scored a 4-2 win over Delhi's Anuj Uppal and Railway man Neeraj Kumar stopped PSPB's Manan Chandra 4-1.