Indias top-ranked Pankaj Advani of ONGC on Sunday enjoyed a smooth passage to the semi-finals as he cruised past home challenger Mukund Bharadia 5-0 in a best-of-9-frame quarter-final match of the CCI All India Open Snooker Championship.
Advani showed a lot of fluency with his pots and was in complete control against Bharadia. Advani started with a break of 53 in the first frame and then signed off with a 85 in the fifth to complete a 62-10, 71-34, 66-16, 68-42 and 85-7 victory.
On the adjacent table, India’s second ranked cueist Laxman Rawat of Indian Oil, was in cracking form and constructed two century breaks, 105 in the second frame and 108 in the fifth to waltz to a 5-1 win against Varun Madan of Delhi in another last eight encounter.
Rawat showed great character and superb touch and control as he neatly stitched together those two substantial efforts to race towards a 58-79, 105-0, 51-11, 64-41, 108-7 and 56-48 success.
Earlier, Bharadia caused a major flutter as he sent defending champion Brijesh Damani of Indian Oil crashing out. Bharadia quashed the aspirations of the Kolkata-based Damani by snatching a nerve-wracking 4-3 victory in the best-of-7-frame round of 16 match.
Playing in familiar surroundings, Bharadia clinched a 22-82, 24-56, 69-24, 74-48, 65-21, 55-67 and 47-38 victory. Advani, in his last 16 match, encountered initial resistance from Anurag Giri of Madhya Pradesh before posting a 4-2 (99-33, 36-103, 44-65, 62-54, 95-25 and 89-13) win.
In other last 16 matches, India no 2 Rawat and number three Aditya Mehta both recorded convincing victories to ease into the quarter-finals. Rawat got the better of Manan Chandra (BPCL) 4-2 (62-34, 35-74, 65-25, 36-95, 75-39, 68-7), while Mehta (ONGC) tamed R Girish of (Railways) 4-1 (1-88(69), 79(57)-42, 91(91)-23, 73(68)-1, 62(43)-24).
Mehta fired in four breaks of 57 (2nd frame), 91 (3rd) and 68 (4th) to complete his win. Earlier, Himanshu Jain of Telangana was on a roll and powered his way past Rupesh Shah of Gujarat coasting to a 4-0 (78-50, 59-30, 89-50 and 72-34) victory.