Asian champion Pankaj Advani and former champion Geet Sethi led the Indian charge as all the seven cuiests from the country reached the knock-out stage in the points format of the IBSF World Billiards Championship in Qawra in Malta on Monday.

The other Indians to make it to the last 16 were Devendra Joshi, Ashok Shandilya, Sourav Kothari, Alok Kumar and Dhruv Sitwala.

Joshi was the first to make it to the next stage when he defeated Gary Oliver of New Zealand [Images] in the third and final round-robin Group A match to maintain a cent per cent record.

Sourav Kothari followed suit as he thrashed Wayne Carey of New Zealand in straight frames to finish behind Australian Robby Foldvari in Group B.

This is the first time that the 150-up points format is being employed in the World championship and this would be followed by the traditional time format championship from Wednesday.

Advani, Sitwala and Shandilya, who had assured themselves berths in the knock-out phase after registering two wins on Sunday, signed off in style to top their respective groups.

Former national champion Alok Kumar thrashed local hero Alex Borg in straight frames to finish second in Group D. The honours in the group went to Phil Mumford of England [Images], who won all his three matches

Sethi dropped a frame against another local favourtire Paul Mifsud before maintaining his clean slate in Group E and also ensured that all the seven Indians in the fray made it to the knock-out phase.