Pankaj Advani and Yasin Merchant began their campaigns at the National Snooker Championships with comfortable wins over their respective rivals here on Wednesday.
Advani outplayed Simranjeet Singh 3-1 (72-29, 70-18, 54-56, 75-40) in Group A, while Merchant beat Arun Chhabra 3-0 (69-15, 56-10, 85-9) in Group D.
Important results:
Group A: Pankaj Advani bt Simranjeet Singh 3-1 (72-29, 70-18, 54-56, 75-40); Vijay Nichhani bt Rishabh Jain 3-1 (91-35, 77-57, 0-27, 83-36); Group B: Sourav Kothari bt Shantanu Bandekar 3-0 (one frame awarded for dress code delay, 65-36, 134-3).
Group C: Shivam Arora bt Anuj Bhargava 3-0 (61-31, 63-29, 70-52); Kamal Chawla bt Subhashis Goswami 3-0 (81-10, 75-5, 77-16); Group D: Yasin Merchant bt Arun Chhabra 3-0 (69-15, 56-10, 85-9).
Group E: Alok Kumar bt Pushpinder Singh 3-0 (70-31, 73(72)-16, 64-24); Group F: Manan Chandra bt Siddharth Parikh 3-0 (90(64)-16, 78-48, 65(64)-01).
Group G: Aditya Mehta bt Balaji Reddy 3-0 (76(62)-05, 78-01, 122-20); Khizar Raoof bt Saket Sourabh 3-0 (61-18, 72-24, 63-52); Group H: K. Venkatesham bt Satyadeep Das 3-0 (73-3, 53-23, 49-36); Group I: Dhruv Verma bt Chetan Raj 3-0 (36-61, 79-17, 74-18, 69-19); Sandeep Gulati bt Wasim Ahmed 3-1 (53-41, 66-45, 63-70, 54-26).
Group J: J. Varun Kumar bt Sanjay Singh Rathod 3-0 (61-16, 55-14, 80-23); I.H. Manudev bt Shyam Jagtiani 3-1 (84-25, 72-60, 02-58, 89-37); Group K: Brijesh Damani bt Divya Sharma 3-0 (59-50, 58-32, 75-1); Himanshu Jain bt Harish Gandhi 3-0 (53-49, 65-26, 58-44).
Group L: Devendra Joshi bt D. Raj Kumar 3-1 (13-48, 64-45, 60-27, 63-21); Bhadresh Panchal bt Vijay Goel 3-2 (65-57, 48-57, 49-62, 76-43, 71-42); Group M: Aneesh Saini bt Nigel D'Souza 3-0 (65-52, 64-16, 70-31); M.S. Arun bt Anuj Uppal 3-0 (89-23, 69-23, 75-68).
Group N: Lucky Vatnani bt Rafath Habib 3-0 (48-34, 93-35, 60-1); Hasan Badami bt Sukumar Barman 3-0 (52-12, 85-44, 62-58); Group O: Nishit Prakash bt Kamal Rohmetra 3-0 (68-40, 71-40, 101-08); Rishabh Pandya bt R. Girish 3-1 (66-36, 63-30, 11-52, 54-34).
Group P: R. Loganathan bt Shravan Mohta 3-1 (62-39, 31-62, 71-35, 64-18); R. Lalrinsanga bt Faisal Khan 3-2 (first frame awarded to Faisal as R. Lal came late, 26-71, 65-5, 78(60)-39, 55-49).
