Thaindian News

Sheffield (England), June 14 (IANS) Pankaj Advani, holder of seven World titles, defeated China’s Li Yan 5-1 in the second round of the Australian Goldfields Open snooker qualifiers here late Wednesday evening.

With the win, the 26-year old Advani is now two rounds away from qualifying for the main draw of the event to be held July 9-15 at the Bendigo Stadium in Victoria state of Australia.

Meanwhile, Aditya Mehta, the 26-year-old from Mumbai, went down 4-5 to Barry Pinches in a match that saw the Indian posting a break of 101 while the Englishman, who was ranked 18 in 2005-06, posted a 142.

Playing against the 67th-ranked Yan, Advani won the first three frames to race to a 3-0 lead. Yan fought back to win the fourth frame before the players went into their half-time break.

In the second half, Advani continued his good run and though there were no big breaks, he created favourable scoring opportunities and won two consecutive frames to end the match 5-1.

Advani, making his debut on the professional circuit, had earlier defeated Justin Astley from England 5-1 in the first round of qualifiers Tuesday and next faces Chinese cueist, Liu Chuang, the 22-year-old former Asian Under-21 champion, in the third round.