India had a mixed luck at the IBSF World Snooker Championship (Men) 2011 held at Bangalore on Tuesday. Twice Asian Champion Yasin Merchant went down to England's top ranked Martin O'Donnell (Group B) in his third encounter at the tournament. It’s a bad news for Yasin who ahd earlier announced his retirement after this tournament.
But it was lucky for the India's Number two ranked Kamal Chawla (Group P) registered his second win in the Championship defeating Joris Mass of Netherland.
In yet another disappointment for Indian fans, Manan Chandra lost to Kevin Van Hove of Belgium 2-4. Chandra lost 14-65, 21-71, 48-57, 77-27, 54-66, 23-70.
But seven-time World champion Pankaj Advani too is just a victory away from making it to the knock-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.
So now the position is that ace Indian cueist Merchant has to wait till Wednesday to book a berth in the knockout stages. Martin will next face Syria`s Omar Alkojah in his bid to qualify for the knockout stages.