Defending champion Pankaj Advani storms into knockout stages of IBSF World Snooker Championship

Defending champion Pankaj Advani has entered the knockouts stages of IBSF World Snooker Championship in Doha with a dominating performance in the round robin stage.

The ace Indian cueist handed crushing defeats to all four of his opponents in his group in the round robin stage with identical scoreline of 4-0.

Since Advani has not dropped a single frame, he remains a strong contender to become the top seed of the last-64 draw, which commences in a couple of days.

The 15-time world champion, in both Snooker and Billiards, won this title last year in Egypt.

Even as Advani is one of the favourites of this tournament, he will face stiff competition in the do-or-die stages from players representing over 50 countries.     

Results from group stage

Pankaj Advani (India) defeated Victor Sarkis (Brazil) 4-0 (55-22 91(59)-55 72-19 66-26); Maris Volajs (Latvia) 4-0 (81(55)-1 86(63)-12 76(74)-17 68-26); Marcin Nitschke (Poland) 4-0 (75-28 54-4 71-0 71-67); Hamed Zarehdoost (Iran) 4-0 (84(57)-0 58(42)-56 86-33 78-0).