Yasin, Advani win in impressive fashion

Bangalore, Jan 28 (UNI) Former Asian champion Yasin Merchant and Asiad gold medalist Pankaj Advani won in fine fashion as fancied players had another easy round in the snooker group league of Jain Heights National Billiards and Snooker championship at KSBA hall here today.

Yasin, the third seed, from Maharashtra steamrolled Divya Sharma of Haryana 3-0, while second seed Advani (PSPB) brushed aside the challenge from Himamshu Arora of Rajasthan by the same margin. Top seed Manan Chandra of PSPB got a walkover against Umar FArooq of Jammu and Kashmir.

The other prominent winners of the day included Devendra Joshi (PSPB) and D Rajkumar (Karnataka).

Results: Group A: Manan Chandra (PSPB) walkover against Umar FArooq (JI). Group B: Pankaj Advani bt Himanshu Arora (Raj) 3-0 (88-16, 82-22, 81-24). Group C: Brijesh Damani (WB) beat Sandeep Gulati (Del) 3-0 (50-34, 53-27, 62-16, Yasin Merchant (Mah) beat Divya Sharma (Har) 3-0 (67-41, 81-09, 102-08).

Group I: Devendra Joshi (PSPB) beat Shyamal Sharma (Bhi) 3-0 (50-26, 81-00, 59-44), Lucky Vatnani (AP) beat S.A.Saleem (TN) 3-1 (75-06, 68-25, 58-73, 75-23). Group J: Siddharth Anand (Del) beat M.Arun (Raj) 3-1(53-38, 55-76, 81-34, 61-29), Prem Prakash (TN) beat Kanishk Jhanjariya (MP) 3-1 (62-24, 65-78, 63-18, 60-23). Group K: Neeraj Kumar (Bhi) beat Sandeep Singh (MP) 3-0(56-35, 55-30, 94-22, Kamal Rohmetra (JK) beat Shravan Mohta (Mah) 3-0 (59-44, 66-55, 56-21). Group L: Dharminder Lilly (Pun) beat Abhishek Raj (UP) 3-0 (91-14, 49-41, 72-30) D.Raj Kumar (Kar) beat B.Bhaskar (Kar) 3-2 (27-61, 76-36, 23-74, 79-50, 61-42). Group M: Aditya Mehta (Mah) beat S.Mumtaz Ali (Jhar) 3-0 (73-37, 94-24, 58-34), Kamal Chawla (Rlys) beat M.S.Arun (Kar) 3-1 (59-20, 59-27, 29-79, 68-44). Group N: Duncan Mackenzie (Kar) beat Sohail Jairaj (Kar) 3-0 (66-09, 59-23, 60-32), Girish (TN) beat Aditya Goenka (WB) 3-1 (60-19, 58-51, 22-64, 79-53), Antim Singhi (TN) gets walkover against Sumeet Talwar (Chan), Rupesh Shah (Guj) beat Neeraj Khemka (WB) 3-1 80-00, 69-43, 30-77, 64-18). Group P: B.V.Srinivas Murthy (Kar) beat K.Venkatesham (Rlys) 3-0 (67-44, 50-12, 52-32), Sourav Kothari (PSPB) beat Peter R.Lalrinitluanga (Miz) 3-0(44-09, 56-11, 60-26).

UNI