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Fancied Yasin Merchant crashes out

Harpal Singh Bedi and C N R Vijaykumar in Bangkok

India's cup of woe was full on the second day of the 13th Asian Games as its best hope in snooker, former Asian champion Yasin Merchant, went down 4-5 to Malaysian Sam Chong in the quarterfinals on Monday evening.

The stylish cueist, who was in the eye of a storm during a game against Pakistan's Mohd Saleh yesterday, squandered a two-frame lead to lose 99-19, 98-0, 34-74, 31-55, 75-21, 37-62, 4-107, 109-0, 0-96.

In the morning, Merchant had chalked out an easy 5-1 win over Pang Wei Guo of China while compatriot Aloke Kumar lost to second-seed Shokat Ali of Pakistan 3-5.

India suffered another loss when Geet Sethi, playing in the first carom championship, lost 23-50 in the singles to Reynaldo Gradea of the Philippines.

Despite a best break of 109 in the eighth frame, Merchant could not maintain his winning streak as the Malaysian moved to the semi-finals with consistent potting.

Initially, Merchant potted well to take breaks of 40 and 52 in the first two frames that enabled him to take a 2-0 lead before Chong could recover.

The next two saw the Malaysian playing tactically to level the score despite only a forty-point break in the third frame.

With a 59 break in the fifth, Merchant managed to grab the lead again. But Chong nullified it through a clear game in the sixth and went on to make a century break of 107 to take a lead for the first time.

But the dashing Indian brought the frame score back on par with a brilliant visit of 109 that saw his opponent draw a blank.

The decider, however, saw Chong spreading the balls easily to go for a break of 96 that clinched the match.

Twenty-year-old Alok Kumar was beaten but not disgraced. He gave world number 39 Ali a run for his money before going down 6-73, 52-72, 64-13, 8-61, 40-76, 56-1, 53-19, 15-80.

Shokat Ali, a professional on the English circuit, has improved tremendously in the last one year to move up to 39^th rank in the world.

This very fact put pressure on the Indian amateur and he conceded the first two frames meekly. But then he recovered his nerve and fought back ferociously to take the third frame, 64-13.

This rattled the Pakistani who knew that losing to an amateur would have an adverse effect on his professional career. So he stepped on the gas and won the next two frames at a canter, to move up 4-1.

But Alok Kumar was not done yet. The entire Indian side cheered as the man from Mandi Gobindgarh, Punjab, made a break of 43 and won the sixth frame. He continued in the same vein to rattle the Pakistani and win the seventh frame 53-19.

Sensing a good fightback, the crowd from other tables moved towards this contest, but Shokat Ali had other ideas.

With his very first opening in the eighth frame, the Pakistani made a classy break of 57. This definitely looked like the end of the match. Alok Kumar then muffed two good chances at crucial moments and let the second seed emerge an easy 80-15 winner.

But third seed Fu Ka Chun Marco of Hong Kong lost to unseeded Ooi Chin Ky of Malaysia 3-5.

In other matches, M Mohd of the United Arab Emirates beat B Batsukh 34-54, 55-48, 48-6, 84-2, 67-26, 65-15 and Chan Kwok Ming of Hong Kong blanked Shimya Eqashire 68-12, 75-16, 66-7, 54-17, 65-12.

UNI