Asian Snooker Championship: Pankaj Advani reaches semis

Ishpreet put up a tough fight against Pankaj and took the match to seven frames. However, Pankaj Advani held his nerve in a topsy-turvy match and won it in the deciding 7th frame, (25-57, 116-16, 57-41, 79-64, 50-67, 42-85, 66-43), which included a century break in the second frame.

Five hours later, he took on Karam Fatima in the quarterfinal and emerged victorious in a one-sided game. Pankaj managed a 50+ break in the second frame and won the match 5-0 (68-20, 80-0, 73-10, 72-0, 64-32).

"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.

"I am sure these conversations make a huge difference, because of the sole amount of mental strength needed for competitions at this level,” Advani was quoted as saying by IANS.

With the title within touching distance, Pankaj Advani will look to continue his unbeaten run in the tournament when he takes on Thailand’s Kritsanut Lertsattayathorn in his semifinal fixture.