Reigning world champion Pankaj Advani's medal hopes in the ongoing third Asian Indoor Games went up in smoke after he crashed out in the pre-quarterfinals of the 6-Red Snooker discipline in Hanoi, Vietnam on Monday.
Advani defeated Japan's Shuji Hase 49-25, 42-1, 37-2, 43-12, 30-43, 45-0 in the first encounter of the day, but failed to carry on the momentum against local favourite Quan Do Hoang in the next game, losing 70-0, 36-2, 4-42, 5-37, 36-28, 0-49, 1-41, 16-35.
However, Delhi boy Manan Chandra came agonisingly close to a medal but his gutsy potting and excellent cushion work was not enough to prevail over Chinese Taipei's Yu Lun Wu in the bronze medal play-off game.
Chandra lost 42-14, 28-36, 22-42, 2-47, 4-56, 0-70 at the hands of Wu to finish fourth in the discipline.
Chandra was defeated by China's Guodong Xiao 36-9, 59-36, 40-12, 44-22 4-43, 4-47, 7-25, 19-37, 0-49 in the semi-finals, Xiao went on to win the gold medal in the 6-Red snooker discipline, beating compatriot Wenbo Liang 6-37, 0-72, 36-28, 38-0, 45-1, 54-0, 49-0 in the final.
In the men singles of 9-ball pool, India's Rafat Habib first defeated Iraq's Ali Saberi Al-Maliki 9-6 but lost his second game 6-9 against Hong Kong's Chen Man Lee.
Another Indian in the fray Alok Kumar lost to Singapore's Cheng Keng Kwang 5-9.
In 3-Cushion carom men singles discipline, India's lone challenge Vijay Goel suffered a first round exit as he lost to Vietnam's Anh Vu Duong 11-40.
Meanwhile, in the 6-Red snooker women singles category, India's challenge ended in the round-robin stage with Chitra Magimairaj and Vidya Pillai lost their respective matches.
While Pillai lost at the hands of China's Bi Jhuqing 14-49, 13-31, 43-23, 9-44, 21-35, Magimairaj was shown the door by another Chinese Siming Chen 40-4, 5-43, 48-8, 27-9, 0-37, 1-38, 0-52.
