Asian Games gold medallist Yasin Merchant joined national champion Pankaj Advani as qualifiers for the World snooker championship after scoring a hard-fought 5-3 victory over Alok Kumar in the semi-finals of the selection tournament in Delhi on Thursday.
The duo will represent India in the World championship, to be played in China in October. Advani had yesterday defeated Manan Chandra 5-2 to qualify for the flag-ship event.
After racing to a 4-1 lead, Merchant looked all set for an easy win but the businessman from Punjab had a different plan as he came back in contention, winning the next two frames.
"Alok is a very dangerous player. He keeps coming at you. While playing against him it is not only essential to control your game but also your nerves," a relieved Merchant said after the match.
"Even in the selection tournament for the Asian snooker championship in Hyderabad early this year I was leading with the same score against him (Alok) and he came back strongly. That time also I was lucky to maintain my composure and win the match," he said.
Merchant, did not start well as he lost the first frame to Kumar 48-64. Known to be an aggressive cuiest, the two-time Asian snooker champion then prefered to play a safe game, winning the next two frames, 67-32, 71-55.
With a 2-1 cushion on his side, Merchant then started to go for his shots and recorded breaks of 66 and 44 in the fourth and fifth frames respectively to take a 4-1 lead.
It looked like all was lost for Kumar, but a easy miss on the brown ball by Merchant gave the Punjab player a chance to bounce back, which he grabbed with both hands to come up with a break of 87 to take the frame, 93-1.
A break of 36 in the very first visit in the seventh frame was enough for Kumar to take the frame, 65-37, as his opponent started to feel the pressure. But Kumar, the former national champion, leading 30-20 in the eighth frame, made an expensive error on a red ball and Merchant ensured that the tie did not go into the decider.
Alok now faces the other losing semi-finalist, Manan Chandra in the third place play-off.
