Indian billiards players qualify for knockouts at Asian Championship

Yangon, Myanmar: All four Indian cueists, including multiple-time world champion Pankaj Advani, on Thursday qualified for the knockout stage at the Asian Billiards Championship here.

Advani will be up against home favourite Aung Htay, while Dhvaj Haria, who gained top billing, faces Singapore's Peter Gilchrist in the quarterfinals.

In the other half of the draw, B Bhaskar meets another local Nay Thway Oo while Rupesh Shah will lock horns with Thawat Sujaritthurakarn of Thailand in the final quarter.

In the women's snooker draw, Amee Kamani got the top seed spot while Varshaa Sanjeev and Keerath Bhandaal found a berth in the knockouts. Vidya Pillai failed to qualify.

The under-21 knockout saw no Indian qualifying.