Pankaj Advani lived upto his billing as India's top cueist as he entered the Indian Open snooker tournament quarterfinals by overcoming stiff resistance from Stuart Bingham in his last-16 stage match here today.
Being made to play a 10 am match after a long and intense one the previous night, India's highest-ranked snooker professional lived up to his reputation of overcoming adversity, closing out a worthy opponent 4-3 in the decider of the best-of-seven pre-quarterfinal.
Battling and getting the better of World No.11 Mark Allen's challenge till 11pm yesterday, Advani went on to say, "As a professional, if you are asked to wake up and play at four in the morning, you have to do it!".
While India's other cueist Aditya Mehta got almost a day to recover, Advani, an eight-time world champion, had to be back on the table in less than 12 hours against one of the toughest competitors in the fray, the World No. 8 Essex cueist.
This win makes Advani the only Indian to reach the quarterfinal of a ranking event again. He brought India on to the global map of snooker by storming into the quarterfinals of the Welsh Open earlier this year.
Advani has repeated the feat today in the Indian Open, making him the Indian to watch out for.
Advani started well with a break of 53 to capture the first frame convincingly. Bingham, the dangerous customer that he is, responded with a fluent 110 break levelling the match 1-1.
