Merchant, Advani maintain clean slates

Thomson stuns Indias Sethi in Masters' section

In the Masters section, Sethi waged a grim battle before going down 2-3 to Thomson in the Group B Round Robin clash. Having lost the first two frames 42-50, 48-53, Sethi rallied to draw parity by winning the next two frames but Thomson prevailed in the decider, winning it 89-6.

In men’s section, Pankaj Advani staved off a stiff challenge from Phillip Williams of Wales to carve out a 4-3 win, his third straight triumph in Group A.

The Indian cueist went 3-1 up before his opponent won the next two frames and an alert Advani pocketed the fifth frame 54-16 to maintain a clean slate in Group A. In Group C, Merchant trounced American Ahmed Aly 4-2 for his third straight win. In Group D, Manan Chandra had a field day against Austrian Alexander Gauss, blanking him 4-0.

Among other Indians in the Men section, Sandeep Gulati routed Ali Obaidly of Qatar 4-0, Shahbaz Khan spanked Pierre Jordaan of South Africa 4-1 and Brijesh Damani beat Leonard Shanahan of Ireland 4-1.

In the Master section, K Venkatesham beat fellow Indian Arvind Savur 3-2, Prabhakaran beat Bambos Kouzis of Cyprus 3-1, while Nadeem Ahmed blanked beat Emmanuel Jeandidier of France 3-0.

Results: Men: Group A: Daniel Thorp (Aus) bt Moosa Saleem (Mau) 4-1; Sandeep Gulati (Ind) bt Ali Obaidly (Qat) 4-0; Pankaj Advani (Ind) bt Phillip Williams (Wal) 4-3.

Group B: Supoj Saenla (Thai) bt Habib Sabah Habib (Bah) 4-0; Mohamed Awad (Egy) bt Mark Hannah (NZ) 4-0; Shahbaz Khan (Ind) bt Pierre jordaan (SA) 4-1.

Group C: Yasin Merchant (Ind) bt Ahmed Aly (US) 4-2; Steve Mifsud (Aus) bt Ammar Taqi (Kuw) 4-0.

Group D: Alex Borg (Mat) bt Mohamed Khaled Belaid (Lib) 4-0; Manan Chandra (Ind) bt Alexander Gauss (Aut) 4-0; James Mifsud (Aus) bt Faaris Kahn (SA) 4-0. Group E: Brijesh Damani (Ind) bt Leonard Shanahan (Ire) 4-1; Igor Figueiredo (Bra) bt Andreas Ploner (Aut) 4-2; Anthony McGill (Sco) bt Ahmed Saif (Qat) 4-2.

Group F: Hesham Abdel Salam (Egy) bt Rishabh Pandya (Ind) 4-1.

Women: Group A: Jaique Ip (HK) bt Nahla Sunni (Bah) 3-0 (75-17, 62-12, 71-32).

Group B: Vidya Pillai (Ind) bt Claudia Weber (Swi) 3-0 (63-12, 72-10, 98-25); Nicha Pathom Eakmongkhon (Tha) bt Kathy Howden (Aus) 3-0 (51-12, 59-33, 53-27).

Group C: Yu Ching Ching (HK) bt Jeanne Young (SA) 3-0 (48-24, 70-20, 42-32); Neena Praveen (Ind) bt Meenal Thakur (Ind) 3-1 (47-60, 53-15, 61-36, 50-21)

Group D: Ramona Belmont (NZ) bt Ng On Yee (HK) 3-2 (31-60, 62-27, 09-105, 59-09, 67-17); Shirley Smith (Aus) bt Delphine Morel (Fra) 3-0 (55-18, 78-50, 36-7); Anuja Chandra (Ind) bt Bi Zhuqing (Chn) 3-0 (59-49, 79-47, 63-57).

Masters: Group A: Cheung Leung Sing (HK) bt Prasanna Maddumage (SL) 3-1. Group B: Clive Thomson (NZ) bt Geet Sethi (Ind) 3-2; Abdul Mohsen Khamis (Qat) bt Ayyoub Alsharrah (Kuw) 3-1; Simon Zammit (Mat) bt Mostafa Aly (Egy) 3-1.
Group C: Hitesh Naran (SA) bt Ali Jaafar (Fra) 3-2; Paul Thomerson (Aus) bt Naoki Matsuzaki (Jpn) 3-0.
Group D: Frank Galanos (Ger) bt Andrey Vill (Rus) 3-0; K Venkatesham (Ind) bt Arvind Savur (Ind) 3-2.
Group E: Prabhakaran (Ind) bt Bambos Kouzis (Cyp) 3-1.
Group F: Brendan Thomas (Ire) bt Satoshi Nakamura (Jpn) 3-0; Glen Wilkinson (Aus) bt Costas Konnaris (Cyp) 3-0. Group G: Ng Yam Shui (HK) bt Henry Killian (NZ) 3-2; Mark Rowing (Eng) bt Ron Jones (Wal) 3-1.
Group H: Jyri Virtanen (Fin) bt Munier Cassim (SA) 3-2; Nadeem Ahmed (Ind) bt Emmanuel Jeandidier (Fra) 3-0; Stevie Baillie (Sco) bt Ahmad Altarkait (Kuw) 3-2.