Advani enters Asian Snooker Championship semis

Doha: Indian star Pankaj Advani stormed into the semifinals of the Asian Snooker Championship here on Thursday.

Controlling the table, he defeated Syria's Karam Fatima 5-0 in the quarterfinal, 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-quarterfinal 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 semifinals, 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 quarterfinal 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."