Pankaj Advani, along with fellow-Bangalorean Balachandra Bhaskar and veterans Ashok Shandilya and Devendra Joshi, notched up three wins from as many outings to move closer to the round of 32 in the World Billiards championship (timed format) here Sunday.
Advani survived a tight match against Robert Hall of England, winning 681-639 after posting breaks of 133, 196 and 149 while the home player had runs of 224 and 268.
Bhaskar had two good runs of 106 and 242 to get past Alok Kumar, finalist in the 2013 championship (points format) and 2011 Asian billiards champion, 623-321, for his third win.
Late Saturday night, Advani crafted a brilliant break of 332, besides 254 and 119, while drubbing England's Robin Wilson 1060-374.
Meanwhile, Peter Gilchrist, the Englishman settled in Singapore, and who also won all his three matches, made the tournament's highest break thus far of 551 while vanquishing Ireland's Wayne Doyle 976-243.
The results:
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Group B: Jaiveer Dhingra bt Phil Davies (ENG) 543-210. Group C: Pankaj Advani bt Robert Hall (ENG) 681 (133, 196, 149)-639 (224, 268); Robin Wilson (ENG) bt Arun Agarwal 871 (198, 186)-386; Advani bt Wilson 1060 (332, 119, 254)-376; Agarwal bt Gaye Jones (ENG) 764-91. Group D: Aditya Agarwal bt Norman Whaley (ENG) 643 (105)-280. Group E: Dhvaj Haria bt Phil Mumford (ENG) 672 (178)-418 (106); Shane Bartelette (CAN) bt Sushrut Pandia 420-411; Neil Bolton (AUS) bt Pandia 470-434. Group F: Raj Kumar Dorairaj bt Chris Taylor 524-433; Steve Brookshaw (ENG) bt Dorairaj 645-337; Siddharth Parikh bt Dorairaj 885 (119, 204)-302 (100); Brookshaw bt Parikh 592 (101)-436 (104, 110).
Group G: Balachandra Bhaskar bt Alok Kumar 623 (106, 242)-321; Alok Kumar bt Todd Hayward (AUS) 875 (184, 158, 188)-367; Balachandra Bhaskar bt Mark Hill (ENG) 816 (170)-148. Group H: Dhruv Sitwala bt Steve Lock (ENG) 737 (142)-218. Group I: Rupesh Shah bt Andrew Draper (ENG) 1053 (246, 163, 110, 145)-117; S Venkateswaran bt Patrick Stegmeir (AUT) 482-412; Ian Williamson (ENG) bt S Venkateswaran 406-262. Group J: Devendra Joshi bt Nalin Patel (ENG) 865 (128, 209, 105)-256; Joshi bt Jonathan Marwood (ENG) 594 (135, 144)-376. Group K: Sourav Kothari bt Brian Harvey (ENG) 704 (154)-386. Ashok Shandilya bt Kothari 565-461 (200); Kothari bt Aaron Davies (ENG) 806-264; Shandilya bt Harvey 839 (101, 101)-364.