Advani enters semis

Former champion Pankaj Advani marched into the semifinals of the National Snooker Championship following a lop-sided win over Sundeep Gulati here on Thursday.

Advani, who skipped last year’s bash owing to his professional tour committments, primed himself nicely to regain his crown after polishing off Gulati 5-1 (80-25, 38-76, 63-39, 67-37, 72 (63)-16, 90-2).

In the semifinals, Advani will take on Dharminder Lilly, who edged out Shivam Arora 5-4.

In the women’s pre-quarterfinals, the trio of Vidya Pillai, Chitra Magimairaj and R Umadevi Nagaraj posted fine wins to keep the State hopes alive of landing the spoils for another year.

Results (snooker): Men (quarterfinals): Kamal Chawla (Rly) bt Laxman Rawat (Mah) 5-3 (74-43, 35-65, 67-24, 67 (62)-2, 28-68, 45-55, 82 (50)-4, 93 (76)-0); Brijesh Damani (PSPB) bt Faisal Khan (Rly) 5-1 (69-24, 59-49, 58-52, 49-73, 69-60, 55-13); Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Sundeep Gulati (Del) 5-1 (80-25, 38-76, 63-39, 67-37, 72 (63)-16, 90-2); Dharminder Lilly (Pun) bt Shivam Arora (Bih) 5-4 (67 (37)-57, 18-73, 28-69, 40-65, 72-47, 73-59, 38-78, 76-52, 81-9).

Semifinal line-up: Kamal Chawla vs Brijesh Damani; Pankaj Advani vs Dharminder Lilly.

Women (pre-quarterfinals): Vidya Pillai (Kar) bt Judy Walia (Kar) 2-1 (40-74, 69-48, 66-15); R Umadevi Nagaraj (Kar) bt Neeta Kothari (WB) 2-0 (44-32, 60-09); Amee Kamani (Mah) bt Varsha Sanjeev (Kar) 2-1 (54-37, 29-57, 52-21); Meenal Thakur (Mah) bt Sunita Khandelwal (MP) 2-0 (48-13, 64-34); Chitra Magimairaj (Kar) bt Indira Gowda (Kar) 2-0 (71-48, 51-9); Arantxa Sanchis (Mah) bt Suniti Damani (WB) 2-1 (20-55, 57-13, 56-30); Neeta Sanghvi (Mah) bt Heena Khandelwal (Mah) 2-0 (66-43, 49-43); Neena Praveen (TN) bt Jagruti Patel (Mah) 2-0 (75-25, 53-20).