Advani, Mehta crash out

Pankaj Advani and Aditya Mehta crumbled under pressure to go down in the knock-out stage of the IBSF World Under-21 and Seniors Snooker Championships in Manama, Bahrain.

Advani, who was unbeaten in the league phase, faltered 3-5 against Michael Lupton of Australia in the knock-outs, where 32 players advanced from eight groups on Tuesday.

Advani went down to the Australian, who had lost to Mehta 3-4 in the group stage.

The 20-year-old was among the senior players in the competition which saw large participation from teenagers in the age group of 15 to 17 years.

Earlier, Mehta, after a decent preliminary round, went down 4-5 to Robert Stephen of Scotland, who was the favourite in his group, in the knock-out stage.

Mehta had a creditable performance with only one defeat in his seven league matches in the league phase.

Among the seniors, former world billiards champion Geet Sethi advanced to the knock-out stage and will now play Cheung Sing of Hong Kong for a place in the quarter-final.