The 24-year-old, who lost his billiards crown to Alok Kumar on Sunday, swatted aside Simranjeet 3-1 (72-29, 70-18, 54-56, 75-40) in the Group A encounter.
Karnataka’s Balaji Reddy opened his campaign with a 3-1 (67-45, 68-59, 11-62, 62-21) defeat of Khizar Raoof.
Results: Group A: Pankaj Advani bt Simranjeet Singh 3-1 (72-29, 70-18, 54-56, 75-40); Vijay Nichhani beat Rishabh Jain 3-1 (91-35, 77-57, 00-27, 83-36). Group B: Sourav Kothari bt Shantanu Bandekar 3-0 (first frame conceded by Bandekar due to dress code delay, 65-36, 134-3).
Group C: Shivam Arora bt Anuj Bhargava 3-0 (61-31, 63-29, 70-52); Kamal Chawla bt Subhashis Goswami 3-0 (81-10, 75-05, 77-16). Group D: Yasin Merchant bt Arun Chhabra 3-0 (69-15, 56-10, 85-09); Dhvaj Haria bt Subrat Das 3-1 (60-1, 72-13, 32-77, 57-29).
Group E: Alok Kumar bt Ankur Nanda 3-0 (95-0, 66-35, 85-12); Pushpinder Singh bt Manish Jain 3-0 (81-23, 84-31, 69-39). Group F: Siddharth Parikh bt Ketan Chawla 3-1 (79-50, 37-51, 80-13, 80-40).
Group G: Aditya Mehta bt Saket Sourabh 3-0 (79-16, 132-0, 75-9); Balaji Reddy bt Khizar Raoof 3-1 (67-45, 68-59, 11-62, 62-21). Group H: Shahbaz Khan bt Satyadeep Das 3-0 (65-6, 69-21, 99-7); K Venkatesham bt Sajan Bopanna 3-2 (83-27, 13-102, 83-25, 21-53, 84-28).
Group I: Sandeep Gulati bt Chetan Raj 3-0 (85-0, 58-36, 64-34); Wasim Ahmed bt Dhruv Verma 3-2 (47-78, 60-38, 56-24, 42-58, 77-30). Group J: IH Manudev bt Sanjay Singh Rathod 3-0 (78-8, 61-21, 69-23); Shyam Jagtiani bt J Varun Kumar 3-1 (58-36, 61-64, 58-40, 75-9).
Group K: Brijesh Damani bt Himanshu Jain 3-0 (82-8, 71-7, 72-61); Divya Sharma bt Harish Gandhi 3-2 (6-67, 81-50, 69-30, 49-62, 82-53). Group L: D Raj Kumar bt Vijay Goel 3-2 (84-46, 65-61, 39-57, 45-56, 81-46).
Group M: MS Arun bt Nigel D'Souza 3-0 (50-16, 81-07, 72-07); Anuj Uppal bt Aneesh Saini 3-1 (93-16, 69-36, 38-71, 67-59). Group N: Rafath Habib bt Sukumar Barman 3-0 (86-1, 89-21, 63-6); Hasan Badami bt Lucky Vatnani 3-2 (65-21, 53-84, 29-49, 58-31, 55-39).
Group O: R Girish bt Kamal Rohmetra 3-1 (61-23, 32-65, 73-33, 73-33); Rishabh Pandya bt Nishit Prakash 3-2 (45-61, 52-53, 59-32, 69-67, 59-15). Group P: Faisal Khan bt Mumtaz Ali 3-0 (57-8, 75-15, 61-10); Shravan Mohta bt R Lalrinsanga 3-2 (73-41, 52-87, 67-24, 49-84, 73-39).
