Defending champion Pankaj Advani continued his winning streak at the 2016 IBSF World Snooker championship yesterday.
At the Al Sadd indoor arena, the Indian cueist was at his best as he outplayed Marcin Nitschke of Poland 4-0. Though there were no big breaks but the win was comfortable and one-sided.
Advani has already confirmed his berth for the knockout by winning all three matches he played so far. Even he is ahead of all with frame win ratio as he has not yet lost a single frame. If he maintains this momentum, Advani will acquire the top-seed slot for the knockouts.
Meanwhile, Germany’s Lukas Kleckers playing his first match was in a good form as he defeated Jason Todd of New Zealand 4-0. In a lop-sided encounter, Kleckers made a crackling break of 107 points.  
Though all three players in Group B, Kleckers, Todd and Simon Lindblom of Sweden have already confirmed their entry in single elimination round as the other two players from the group Batsukh Baldandorj (Mongolia) and Dongmin Kim (Korea) had ‘No-Show’.  
With this reason Lukas played his first match yesterday. Meanwhile, Qatar’s Ahmed Saif had little trouble in beating Saif al-Shamsi of UAE 4-2, however another cueist Mhanaa al-Obaidli lost to Kuwait’s Soud Alabdul Razaq of Kuwait 3-2 in a close match.
In the women’s event, Singapore’s girl Zeet Huey Chai, in her first ever World Championship, gave tough fight to former European Champion Tatjana Vasiljeva from Latvia before losing 1-3. From the start Chai showed some clear potting and scored good points but failed to finish the frame. Vasiljeva managed to make a comeback scoring 56 against 42. In next frame, Zeet curtailed well and won that frame 44-35. In the third frame, Vasiljeva posted a worthy break of 57 points to stay ahead of Chai.
Despite all efforts by Chai in the fourth frame, Vasiljeva maintained her lead and kept accelerating till she closed the proceedings.
In another match, Ng On Yee of Hong Kong was on fire as she beat Kerry De Pradines of Australia. Yee made three breaks of 47, 39 and 43 in all three frames to win 3-0.  
So far Yee has played two matches and won both without losing a frame and now she stands on par with Wendy Jans, Amee Kamani and Chitra Magimairaj, who have also won two matches each without losing a frame.
Over 250 players from 55 countries are competing in the IBSF World Snooker championship, which is being held concurrently for men, women and masters. The 10-day tournament will end on November 29. A total of $16,000 is up for grabs in the men’s event of the championship, being hosted for the first time in the GCC. The women’s event carries a $6,000 purse while $8,000 is at stake for the master players. The winner of the championship highest break in the men’s category will receive $500 cash reward plus certificate. For women, the highest break will fetch $200 and for the masters’ $300.
Aside from Advani, other top cueists to watch out for in the men’s event are 2012 champion Muhammad Asif of Pakistan, China’s Chen Zifan, Iran’s Amir Sarkhosh and Peter McCullagh of Australia among others. The hosts charge is led by Mohsen Bukshaisha. The other players are Mhanaa al-Obaidli, Abdulatif al-Fawal, Bashar Abdulmajeed, Ali al-Obaidli, Khamis al Obaidli, Ahmed Saif and Abdullah al Suwaidi.
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