Winning start for Pankaj in Nahar-MIG Snooker Championship

Mumbai: World snooker champion Pankaj Advani started his campaign on a winning note, defeating host club`s Gaurav Prabhu 4-0 in the Rs 3.10 lakh Nahar-MIG All India Invitation Snooker Championship.

Advani dominated the match throughout and gave no chance to the newcomer Gaurav defeating him 73-21, 89-0, 73-9, 73-49 at the MIG CC Club House. Ace cueist Yasin Merchant made it up for his first match loss defeating I H Manudeo 4-2.Meanwhile, Sourav Kothari defeated Devendra Joshi 4-3 in a thrilling match. After losing the first frame, Devendra dominated the next three frames and was leading 3-1 at one stage but Kothari kept his cool and pocketed the match.Results: Pankaj Advani bt Gaurav Prabhu 4-0 (73-21,89-0,73-9,73-49); Saurav Kothari bt Devendra Joshi 4-3 (64-47,53-69,27-76,13-79,64-40,71-37,92-26); Yasin Merchant bt RH Manudeo 4-2 (63-11,62-61,23-82,17-64,67-48,70-47); Brijesh Damani bt Shahbaz Khan 4-3 (39-46,54-81,61-20,58-42,63-02, 18-71, 72-29); R Girish bt Geet Sethi 4-2 (51-30,51-56,87-0, 25-58,71-58,59-17). PTI