Pankaj Advani in Baulkline snooker final, to meet Ishpreet Chadha

Mumbai, May 10 (IANS) Multiple-time World Champion, Pankaj Advani positioned himself for the Rs.5 lakh winner's prize money with a facile 8-2 win against Himanshu Jain in the semifinals of the Rs 32 lakh prize money NSCI Baulkline 4.0 All India Snooker Tournament at the NSCI Dome here on Saturday.

Advani cut loose with three century-plus breaks to dominate a match in which the vanquished Jain pinched two frames. Advani has been in the city for the CCI Billiards Classic that he won against Dhruv Sitwala and is yet to come under any pressure in the snooker event at the venue in Worli.

In the second semifinals, Ishpreet Singh Chadha got the better of Aditya Mehta to pull off a narrow 8-6 victory to set up a clash with Advani, a repeat of last year's final.

Earlier on Friday, Advani displayed top class craftsmanship against Ketan Chawla to win his quarterfinal match 7-1. In the best of 13 frames knock-out match, Advani struck form in the last four frames with high breaks of 63, 82, 57 and 60 to romp home in style at the NSCI Dome on Friday.

In another last eight match, Himanshu Jain defeated Digvijay Kadian 7-2 while Ishpreet Singh Chadha beat Sourav Kothari 7-2.

Results (semifinals set to 15): Pankaj Advani bt Himanshu Jain 8-2: 69-15, 73-71, 121 (120)-0, 74-26, 24-71, 72 (50)-5, 135 (135)-7, 37-70, 134(112)-20, 60-18; Ishpreet Singh Chadha beat Aditya Mehta 8-6 -- 37-86(56), 39-64(64), 60-59(51), 38-97(76), 60-53, 55-76(53), 14-78(58), 31-88(86), 27-83(50), 88(67)-1, 98(60)-0, 69-0, 77-0).

--IANS

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