Pankaj Advani enters IBSF World Snooker C'ship knockouts

Hurghada (Egypt): Ace cueist Pankaj Advani led the charge as a fine showing by the Indian contingent saw all the members qualify from their respective categories to the knockout stage of the IBSF World Snooker Championship, here today.

Advani outplayed Belgium's Peter Bullen 4-0 to advance to the last-32 at the Sunrise Crystal Bay resort.

In the first match of the knockout phase played in the women's category, Chitra Magimairaj posted a comfortable win against her compatriot Sunita Khandelwal.

Chitra, the winner of this year's IBSF world ranking Australian Snooker Open held in Sydney, played steadily to win 4-0. Chitra will now play her last-16 match against Tatjana Vasiljeva of Latvia.

Besides Chitra the other Indian women players including National Champion Amee Kamani, Vidya Pillai, Arantxa Sanchis and young Varsha Sanjib also exhibited good form.

Amee registered a sensational win in the group league against the reigning world champion Wendy Jans of Belgium by blanking her 3-0.