World snooker: Merchant loses to O'Donnel

Ace Indian cueist Yasin Merchant will have to wait till Wednesday to know whether he will make it to the knock-out stages of the IBSF World Snooker Championship after losing to England's Martin O'Donnel on the second day in Bangalore, on Tuesday.

Seven-time World champion Pankaj Advani too is just a victory away from making it to the knowk-out stage. He exhibited fine form to demolish the challenge of Polish cueist Marcin Nitschke in four straight frames.

Advani won the first frame 101-1 and maintained his tempo to pocket the next three 61-23, 100-3, 108-23. His break of 95 in the third frame dealt a telling blow on Marcin, who failed to recover thereafter.

Merchant, riding high after defeating Libya's Khaled Elbakosh and Bairaq Al-Urfy of Sweden on Monday, lost to O'Donnel 3-4, but not before a good fight in the Group A tie.

The game was close and till the last frame it was hard to predict who would to win the match. Merchant, down 0-2, came back strongly to win the next three frames. The Mumbai cueist conceded the first two frames 12-73, 29-56. He trounced the English cueist in the next three frames 66-54, 77-1, 66-4.

Merchant, however, could not maintain the tempo and lost the next two 38-77, 24-80, Martin's break of 74 in the deciding frame sealing Merchant's fate.

The Indian next faces Syria's Omar Alkojah in his bid to qualify for the knockout stages.

Alkojah was beaten by Martin 2-4 in his first encounter on Monday. The Syrian, however, regrouped his resources to beat Sweden's Bairaq Al-Urfy 4-1 in his next match.

In yet another disappointment for Indian fans, Manan Chandra lost to Kevin Van Hove of Belgium 2-4 (14-65, 21-71, 48-57, 77-27, 54-66, 23-70).

Manan had a good outing on Day 1, crushing the USA's Ahmed Aly Elsayed 72-28, 96-07, 100-29, 72-49.

Kamal Chawla and Brijesh Damani provided Indian fans reason to cheer when they defeated Joris Maas of Netherlands and Craig Macgillivray of Scotland respectively.

Chawla registered his second round-robin win, thrashing Maas 4-1 in Group P encounter. He won first two frames 79-15, 67-53, but conceded the following frame 55-64.

The Indian hounded the Netherlands cueist out by securing the next two frames 52-47, 70-60.

Chawla had registered a 80-27, 70-5, 109-0, 72-41 win over Ryan Somaratna of Sri Lanka on Monday evening.

In another Group L match, Damani beat Craig 79-47, 60-45, 3-116, 76-10, 47-76, 50-60, 93-00.

Hong Kong's Au Chi Wai beat India's Neeraj Kumar 6-62, 82-2, 5-83 (69), 66-30, 74-32, 121-03.

Brendan O'Donoghue of Ireland comfortably defeated Toh Chee Keong of Singapore 4-0. Australia's Vinnie Calabrese recovered from Monday's defeat and won his match against Germany's Karl Heinz Beggel 4-1.

Results:

Brijesh Damani (India) beat Craig Macgillivray (Scotland) 4-3 79-47, 60-45, 03-116(67), 76-10, 47-76, 50-60, 93(87)-00.

Noppon Saengkham (Thailand) beat Gary Gillard (New Zealand) 4-1 58-18, 77(76)-07, 62-65, 71-19, 79-08.

Vinnie Calabrese (Australia) beat Karl Heinz Beggel (Germany) 4-1 66-26, 44-22, 92-00, 11-65, 62-44.

Rais Khan Sen Zahi (Afghanistan) beat Michael Wild (England) 4-0 80-01, 69(58)-25, 65-28, 78(73)-40.

Wael Talaat (Egypt) beat Andreas Ploner (Austria) 4-2 39-73, 71(63)-00, 48-29, 30-72, 84-01, 65-25.

Brendan O' Donoghue (Ireland) beat Toh Chee Keong (Singapore) 4-0 69-09, 73-39, 64-28, 73(50)-21.

Hitesh Naran (South Africa) beat Ryan Somaratna (Sri Lanka) 4-1 66-33, 78-01, 70(62)-14, 00-74, 77-57.

Kamal Chawla (India) beat Joris Maas (Netherlands) 4-1 79-15, 67-53, 55-64, 52-47, 70-60(60).

Richards Rhydian (Wales) beat Enkhjargal Enkhbaatar (Mongolia) 4-3 75(70)-10, 23-61, 63-17, 47-58, 34-64, 70-16, 89(68)-01.

Mohamed Khairy (Egypt) beat Balaji Reddy (India) 4-2 38-68, 75-46, 83(82), 32-67, 74(63)-21, 90-05.

Au Chi Wai (Hong Kong) beat Neeraj Kumar (India) 4-2 06-62, 82(56)-02, 05-83(69), 66-30, 74(55)-32, 121(121)-03.

Karam Fatima (Syria) beat Ajeya Prabhakar (USA) 4-1 72-25, 63-66, 55-02, 64-08, 87-32.

Kevin Van Hove (Belgium) beat Manan Chandra (India) 4-2 65-14, 71-21, 48-37, 21-77, 66((65)-54, 70-23.

Ahmed Aly Elsayed (USA) beat Misja Van Vonderen (Netherlands) 4-1 26-78, 64-41, 61-25, 61-27, 74(73)-01.

Omar Al Kojah (Syria) beat Bairaq Al-Urfy (Sweden) 4-1 80-49, 40-81(80), 70-52, 55-40, 68-00.

Martin O'Donnell (England) beat Yasin Merchant (India) 4-3 73-12, 56-29, 54(54)-66(66), 04-66(65), 01-77, 77(53)-38, 80(74)-24.