IBSF World Snooker Championship enters crucial stages
DOHA, November 23, 2017 - Two-time IBSF world snooker champion Pankaj Advani compiled the tournament's highest break so far to breeze into the knockout stages of the 2017 IBSF World Snooker Championship at Al Arabi Sports Club Indoor Hall on Wednesday.
Advani, who won the 150-Up format of the IBSF World Billiards Championship last week at the same venue, is a strong title contender in the snooker event too.
Yesterday, in his final group match against Victor Sarkis of Brazil, Advani's 138-point break in the last frame of the game brought down curtains on the one-sided game.
Advani's effort surpassed the 136-point break by Sarkis' compatriot Igor Figueiredo from a few days ago. The 32-year-old from Indian city of Bengaluru has now entered the last-64 single elimination round winning 16 frames in four matches at the deficit of two, one each to Khamis Alobaidli of Qatar and Karl Fitzpatrick of Ireland.
Last year's finalist Andrew Pagett beat Ali Hussein of Iraq 4-1 for his place in the knockout stages. Pakistan's Mohamed Asif, the 2012 world champion, overcame a 1-3 deficit against Poland's Mateusz Baranowski in emphatic fashion to post a 4-3 win for his place in the last 64. On Tuesday, Asif had suffered a 1-4 defeat at the hands of Myanmar's Ko Htet.
Wednesday, Asif might have seen his chances slip away despite a brilliant start that saw him stitch together an 89-point break to take the first frame. Baranowski took the next three games armed with breaks of 76 and 50 in the second and fourth frame.
However, Asif came back strong to win three frames on the trot for a thrilling victory.
A day after Qatar's Bashar Abdulmajeed made it to the knockouts, compatriot Ahmed Saif too beat Austria's Andreas Ploner 4-2 for the knockout rounds that start today.
Three teenagers, Ivan Kakovsky (18) of Russia, Mohamed Naseem Akhtar (16) of Pakistan and Yazan Alhadad (15) of Syria, also advanced to the next round.
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