It was a day of mixed fortunes for Indian cueists, as World amateur snooker champion Pankaj Advani and National champion Alok Kumar moved into the semi-finals of the Asian Snooker Championship at Aqaba, Jordan, but Yasin Merchant bit the dust.
Advani rallied twice to beat Keith Boon of Singapore 5-3 while Alok Kumar displayed a beautiful blend of aggression and safety play to beat Alex Puan Yi-Wei of Singapore 5-2.
But former champion Merchant could not find his rhythm and went down to Habib Mahmood of Bahrain 2-5 in the quarter-finals.
The 19-year-old Advani made a nervous start losing the closely fought first frame and the players were on par till the fourth before the Indian raced away to a 4-2 lead.
Boon took the seventh frame to put pressure on Advani but the World champion showed that he was in a class of his own to take the tie 54-66, 62-52, 64-83, 79-34, 79-0, 71-18, 29-65, 72-10 to enter the semi-finals.
He will now meet Kowk Wai Fung of Singapore for a place in the final.
Alok Kumar started the match on a promising note, registering breaks of 55 and 49 in the first two frames to take the tie 64-42, 82-29, 87-47, 56-31, 36-46, 25-75, 58-4.
He will now face Habib in the last four.
On the other hand, Merchant was found wanting against the tactics of his opponent and was soon trailing 1-3.
A revival looked on the cards when he took the fifth frame without conceding a point to his opponent but then Habib wrapped up the next two to take the tie 61-58, 93-1, 46-52, 75-40, 0-128, 51-13, 60-27.
