Pankaj Advani, Yasin Merchant and Manan Chandra all posted runaway victories on the opening day of the IBSF World snooker championship at the KSBA here on Monday.
The two Indians to lose matches were the veteran Alok Kumar and debutant junior National champion Lalrina Renthlei.
Being his last major, having decided to call it a day soon after, Merchant downed Libya's Khaled Elbakosh 81-30, 92-8, 107 (90)-19, 85-14 in the morning and returned in the afternoon to outsmart Sweden's Bairaq Al-Urfy 67-51, 76-0, 67-60, 83-0.
The gifted Manan Chandra, a former National champion, showed why he is held in awe with some sterling show against Ahmed Aly Elsayed.
Nitschke's century break
The championship's first century break came from Marcin Nitschke of Poland, who produced 101 in the third frame, in a losing cause against Yaser Elsherbiny (Egypt).
Advani, a former IBSF champion playing on his home turf, lost no time in disposing off Astutoshi Inoue of Japan and returned to beat Egypt's Yaser Elsherbiny by an identical 4-0 margin.
“He played superbly in the fourth frame and if he had started off like that would have posed some problems…The tables and cushions are new and thus slow…it will come good in a couple of days time and then we can see more fluency and more century breaks” said the champ from Bangalore.
The results:
Group A: Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (Tha) bt Ahmed Aly Elsayed (USA) 4-0 (67-32, 86-21, 74-46, 85-35); Kevin Van Hove (Bel) bt Misja Van Vonderen (Ned) 4-0 (68-7, 70-56, 72-12, 89-0); Manan Chandra (Ind) bt Aly Elsayed 4-0 (72-28, 96-7, 100-29, 72-29); Thepchaiya bt van Vonderen 4-0 (76-35, 106-31, 71-42, 66-13).
Group B: Yasin Merchant (Ind) bt Khaled Elbakosh (Lby) 4-0 (81-30, 92-5, 107-19, 85-14); Martin O'Donnell (Eng) bt Omar Alkojah (Syr) 4-2 (11-70, 13-62, 65-48, 111-0, 75-5, 75-25); Merchant bt Bairaq Al-Urfy (Swe) 4-0 (67-51, 76-0, 67-60, 83 -0); O'Donnell bt Elbakosh 4-0 (58-13, 112-17, 97-0, 75-14).
Group C: Rodney Goggins (Ire) bt Andrey Vill (Rus) 4-0 (74-25, 100-14, 76-25, 104 -1); Anuj Uppal (Ind) bt Bikasem Dabob (Lib) 4-0 (68-11, 55-31, 63-3, 69-47); Uppal (Ind) bt Vill 4-1 (72-49, 83-0, 26-73, 65-25, 101-23); E.H. Nezhad (Iri) bt R. Goggins (Irl) 4-2 (34-72, 111-24, 92-16, 72-58, 27-59, 60-46).
Group D: Yaser Elsherbiny (Egy) bt Marcin Nitschke (Pol) 4-3 (76-46, 39-73, 0-137, 46-79, 108-23, 55-26, 75-37); Pankaj Advani (Ind) bt Astutoshi Inoue (Jpn) 4-0 (71-0, 89-10, 78-4, 76-21); Advani bt Elsherbiny 4-0 (85-8, 80-26, 105-35, 69-62); Mitchke bt Pascal Camenzind (Sui) 4-1 (0-99, 87-1, 68-0, 62-44, 93-0); Antti Silvo (Fin) bt Inoue 4-0 (86-5, 62-39, 59-13, 84-0).
Group E: Alok Kumar (Ind) bt Sergelen Batdelger (Mgl) 4-1 (52-64, 49-40, 69-20, 88-0, 72-33); Lee Walker (Wal) bt Alok Kumar 4-0 (88-33, 64-54, 75-61, 74-31).
Group F: Fung Kwok Wai (HK) bt Gregory Kopec (Fra) 4-1 (70-31, 86-20, 66-78, 89-0, 58-56); Mohamed Isa Ebrahim Shaikh (Bah) bt Joe Minici (Aus) 4-2 (48-40, 65-32, 68-8, 35-67, 67-78, 74-33); Bernhard Bernhardsson (Icl) bt Lalrina Renthlei (Ind) 4-2 (55-54, 68-40, 47-71, 60-64, 72-27, 69-56).
Group G: Alexander Gauss (Aut) bt Vladimir Bykov (Rus) 4-1 (52-43, 61-13, 59-24, 55-79, 56-48); Hossein Vafaei Ayouri (Iri) bt Saleh Mohammed (Afg) 4-0 (88-30, 78(78)-19, 72-12, 75-42).
Group H: Mohd Shehab (UAE) bt Ali Jaafar (Fra) 4-1 (74-4, 55-68, 77-9, 112 -0, 98 (69)-12); Pierre Jordaan (RSA) bt Yusuke Tanaka (Jpn) 4-0 (68-9, 38-61, 65-43, 61-38).
Group J: Mark Tuite (Ire) bt Arjun Lavingia (Tan) 4-1 (119-5, 72 -2, 21-66, 91-6, 84-36).
Group K: Steve Mifsud (Aus) bt Ali Abd Mohsin (Irq) 4-0 (75-17, 83-23, 81-17, 60-24); Mohammed Al Joaker (UAE) bt Sergiy Isayenko (Ukr) 4-1 (74-37, 90-18, 77-9, 16-57, 55-27).
Group L: Craig McGillivray (Sco) bt Noppon Saengkham (Tha) 4-0 (64-0, 90-8, 97-0, 68-53); Antonis Poullos (Cyp) bt Gary Gillard (NZ) 4-1 (66-27, 64-50, 29-76, 84-0, 132 -8).
Group M: Michael Wild (Eng) bt Vinnie Calabrese (Aus) 4-2 (107-13, 67-17, 70-9, 12-60, 1-73, 75-40); Rais Khan Sen Zahi (Afg) bt Muhammad Asif (Pak) 4-2 (58-38, 45-70, 79-9, 49-58, 100 -8, 71-31).
Group N: Wael Talaat (Egy) bt Berndan O'Donoghue (Ire) 4-2 (80-43, 97-32, 44-54, 101 -35, 9-112, 65-2).
Group P: Kamal Chawla (Ind) bt Ryan Somaratna (SL) 4-0 (80-27, 70-5, 109 -0, 72-41); Joris Maas (Ned) bt Stefan Schneider (Sui) 4-0 (62-23, 70-9, 73 -16, 51-29).
Group Q: Mohamed Khairy (Egy) bt Costas Konnaris (Cyp) 4-2 (76-43, 31-79, 71-23, 75-40, 49-56, 79-2).
Group R: Karam Fatima (Syr) bt Peter Bullen (Bel) 4-0 (74-13, 85 -0, 83-22, 65-2).
