Alok loses, Advani cruises

Asian snooker champion Alok Kumar suffered a setback after three consecutive victories in Group B of the IBSF World Snooker championships at Veldhovan, The Netherlands.

The Indian was blanked 0-4 by Australia's Steve Mifsud, who won the championship two years ago in Egypt. Kumar could offer little resistance, losing 0-106, 9-98, 61-64, 32-65.

Kumar had thrashed Habib Subah of Bahrain 4-0 in his previous match.

However, Manan Chandra tasted a win in a Group C tie, thrashing Raymon Fung of the United States who proved to be a no-match for the national snooker champion. Chandra won 4-0 (131-0, 87-47, 88-19, 74-8) in the best of seven frames encounter.

Chandra had earlier beaten Darren Thompson of Wales with a 4-1 margin scoring 75-54, 75-72, 17-60, 100-28, 80-8.

In a Group F match, defending champion Pankaj Advani beat Ahmed Al-Sada of Qatar 4-1 to maintain clean slate in the four matches he has played so far. Advani lost only the second frame but outclassed his opponent in the remaining frames for a 73-27, 15-67, 78-25, 94-40, 112-6 win.

In Group E, Rafath Habib, the Asian Games gold medallist, beat Ireland's David Morris 4-1 (118-4, 85-1, 66-73, 63-8, 58-14).

The Indian women had a good outing as both Meenal and Anuja Thakur won with identical 3-2 margins while Revanna Uma Devi clinched a thumping 3-0 win in the best of five frames matches.

Meenal trounced Tsang Hoi Ki of Hong Kong in Group C and Anuja beat Australia's Tammy Cantori in Group G. Uma Devi beat Venetia Jacobs of The Netherlands in Group D.

In the seniors category, former billiards champion Geet Sethi beat Ludvik Norgulen of Iceland 3-0 (74-12, 72-15, 79-6). Sethi had narrowly lost his previous match to Toe Minici of Australia, going down 2-3.

Another senior participant, B V S Murthy won 3-0 against Jonas Larsson with the scores of 63-19, 64-42, 83-10.