Advani off to winning start; Sethi posts easy victory

The 25-year-old Banglorean looked in brilliant touch, producing four century breaks as he breezed past Pandia 1150-167 in a lop-sided encounter.

Five-time winner Geet Sethi also posted a comfortable 781-397 win over team-mate Siddharth Parikh while nine-time champion and last year’s runner-up Mike Russell sounded a huge warning with a 1070-262 defeat of Englishman Ian Williamson.

Results: Group A: Pankaj Advani (Ind): 1150 (178, 155, 172, 94, 77, 125) bt Sushrat Pandia (Ind): 167; Sourav Kothari (Ind): 728 (87, 152, 160, 79) bt Devendra Joshi (Ind): 280 (68). Group B: Rupesh Shah (Ind): 702 (71, 112, 83, 114) bt Bem French (Eng): 239; Geet Sethi (Ind): 781 (150, 95, 182, 108) bt Siddharth Parikh (Ind): 397 (122, 77, 82).

Group C: Ashok Shandilya (Ind) 504: (94, 127) bt Dhruv Sitwala (Ind): 283 (104); David Causier (Eng): 868 (87, 166, 97, 100) bt Mark Hirst (Eng): 289 (52).

Group D: Mike Russell (Qtr): 1070 (354, 105, 224, 153, 98) bt Ian Williamson (Eng): 262 (63, 70 (unfinished)); Peter Gilchrist (Eng): 616 (73, 67, 140, 59) bt Gary Rogers (Eng) 394 (80).