Pankaj advances to knockout stage of Asian Snooker Tour

Multiple time world champion Pankaj Advani on Sunday won both his league matches to move into the knockout stages of the second leg of Asian Snooker Tour in Jinan, China.

In his first match, Pankaj overcame a local Chinese challenger Pang Junxu 4-2. Later in the day, the reigning world billiards and snooker champion played exceptional snooker to whitewash Qatar's Ahmed Saif 4-0.

Despite an opening 41 break, the Qatari missed and left Pankaj with an opening that would turn out to be the beginning of his lopsided defeat.

The Indian neatly put away a few colours to bring the first frame down to the deciding black ball.

Pankaj got the advantage and gained a 1-0 lead and never looked back.

In the second frame, he pieced together a frame-winning 52 break with Ahmed remaining on nought.

The third frame was also one-sided but there was a fight in the fourth. Trailing 38-1, Pankaj cleared the table and won the frame by 2 points to confirm his qualification to the last-16 stage which commences Monday.

Among other Indians in the fray, Manan Chandra and Varun Madan lost their first matches 1-4 and 0-4 respectively while Kamal Chawla registered a narrow 4-3 win. Their final group ties will take place on Monday.