World Snooker: Advani surges ahead

India ace Pankaj Advani on Tuesday maintained his unbeaten run in the ongoing IBSF world snooker championship as more Indian cueists advanced to the knockout stages. Advani, who is already in the knockouts, cruised to a 4-0 win over Mike Toth from Switzerland, aided by two half-century breaks to top his group with an all-win record after six outings. Other notable entries to book their knockout berths were Asian champion Thor Chuan Leong of Malaysia and India’s Laxman Rawat. Laxman posted his fourth win of Group B to make sure he entered the last-64 stage. Laxman lost the first frame to Jurian Heusdens of Belgium, but won the next four on the trot with a break of 87 in the fourth being his best for the day. Lucky Vatnani, Varun Madan, Rahul Ajay Sachdev and Shivam Arora also won their respective concluding league matches to reach the knockout stage.