Pankaj Advani made surprise exit from the 300,000 pound sterling Indian Open World Ranking Snooker Tournament after losing 3-4 to young Rhys Clark of Scotland in Mumbai on Tuesday.
The National champion, who scored a grand double at the World Billiards Championships in Leeds last October by winning the 150-up and Timed formats titles, rallied from 2-3 down with a half century break to draw level 3-3 in the best-of-seven-frames wild card round contest to decide who will reach the main 64-player draw on to fumble at the crunch.
In the deciding seventh frame, Advani was trailing, but again came back by potting the black ball to level scores at 58-all. However, he lost the shoot-off on the black ball as Clark sunk it with a double-back shot into the centre pocket.
Advani lost 8-72, 73-29, 83(83)-0, 54-55, 75(75)-0, 8-72, 65-58.
The exit of the Bengaluru cue ace ended a miserable day for India, as five other wild card recipients were eliminated, leaving Aditya Mehta -- India's lone professional card holder -- to carry the host country's hopes in the five-day tournament.
Prior to Advani's exit, Faisal Khan was the fifth Indian to be knocked out in the pre-main draw round.
Khan was beaten 4-2 in the best-of-seven frames match by England professional Nigel Bond, the world number 65 in another wild card round match.
Earlier, India's Neeraj Kumar, Brijesh Damani, Sumit Talwar and Dharminder Lily made their exit, losing their wild card draw matches.
Kumar and Talwar were blanked 4-0 by Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (Thailand) and Adam Duffy (England) respectively.
Damani was beaten 4-1 by Sam Baird of England while Lily frittered away a 3-1 lead to lose 3-4 to 17-year-old Chinese rival Lyu Haotian to add to a miserable day for Indian wild card players.
Photograph: Pankaj Advani/Twitter
