Advani crashes out of Asian Indoor Games

Reigning world champion Pankaj Advani's medal hopes in the ongoing third Asian Indoor Games went up in smoke after he crashed out in the pre-quarterfinals of the 6-Red Snooker discipline in Hanoi, Vietnam on Monday.

Advani defeated Japan's Shuji Hase 49-25, 42-1, 37-2, 43-12, 30-43, 45-0 in the first encounter of the day, but failed to carry on the momentum against local favourite Quan Do Hoang in the next game, losing 70-0, 36-2, 4-42, 5-37, 36-28, 0-49, 1-41, 16-35.

However, Delhi boy Manan Chandra came agonisingly close to a medal but his gutsy potting and excellent cushion work was not enough to prevail over Chinese Taipei's Yu Lun Wu in the bronze medal play-off game.

Chandra lost 42-14, 28-36, 22-42, 2-47, 4-56, 0-70 at the hands of Wu to finish fourth in the discipline.

Chandra was defeated by China's Guodong Xiao 36-9, 59-36, 40-12, 44-22 4-43, 4-47, 7-25, 19-37, 0-49 in the semi-finals, Xiao went on to win the gold medal in the 6-Red snooker discipline, beating compatriot Wenbo Liang 6-37, 0-72, 36-28, 38-0, 45-1, 54-0, 49-0 in the final.

In the men singles of 9-ball pool, India's Rafat Habib first defeated Iraq's Ali Saberi Al-Maliki 9-6 but lost his second game 6-9 against Hong Kong's Chen Man Lee.

Another Indian in the fray Alok Kumar lost to Singapore's Cheng Keng Kwang 5-9.

In 3-Cushion carom men singles discipline, India's lone challenge Vijay Goel suffered a first round exit as he lost to Vietnam's Anh Vu Duong 11-40.

Meanwhile, in the 6-Red snooker women singles category, India's challenge ended in the round-robin stage with Chitra Magimairaj and Vidya Pillai lost their respective matches.

While Pillai lost at the hands of China's Bi Jhuqing 14-49, 13-31, 43-23, 9-44, 21-35, Magimairaj was shown the door by another Chinese Siming Chen 40-4, 5-43, 48-8, 27-9, 0-37, 1-38, 0-52.