Advani enters Asian Snooker C’ship semis

Doha, April 21 : Indian star Pankaj Advani stormed into the semifils of the Asian Snooker Championship here on Thursday.

Controlling the table, he defeated Syria's Karam Fatima 5-0 in the quarterfil, who he met after winning against fellow Indian Ishpreet Singh Chadha 4-3 in the round of 16.

Earlier in the day, Pankaj had won his pre-quarterfil against Ishpreet 4-3 (25-57, 116-16, 57-41, 79-64, 50-67, 42-85, 66-43) with a century break of 107 in his second frame of the game. Commenting on his entry into the semifils, Pankaj was exhausted but glad that the day was done sharing.

"With two intensely important games on the same day within short spans of each other, it was essential that I be mentally prepared for each match. Post the afternoon's game, I spent a long time dissecting my performance along with my brother, Shree allowing myself to get it out of my system before I moved into the quarterfil match," Advani said in a release.

"I am sure these conversations make a huge difference, because of the sole amount of mental strength needed for competitions at this level." IANS