The Indian challenge in the under-21 World snooker championship, being played in Carlow, Ireland, came to an end with the defeat of Aditya Mehta in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
The Maharashtra cueist suffered a 6-4 defeat against top seed Gary Wilson of England, who had knocked out Pankaj Advani in the pre-quarter-finals.
Leading 3-0 in the quarter-final match, Mehta looked on course for a huge upset before his 18-year-old opponent bounced back with a vengeance to level the scores.
Mehta once again shot back into lead, only to be pegged back by an impressive showing by Wilson, who took the next three games to move into the semi-finals with a 48-60, 1-116, 43-72, 103-0, 71-64, 76-16, 2-78, 67-22, 85-13, 65-45 victory.
In the pre-quarter-finals, played late Tuesday night, Advani never looked his own self, going down to top seed Gary Wilson of England 2-5 while Mehta blanked Brendan Byrne of Ireland 5-0.Mehta, who had accounted for eighth seed Mark Allen in the round of 32 earlier in the day, beat the local favourite 96-5, 62-18, 85-18, 68-49, 64-8.
The Mumbai-based cueist, who had an indifferent start to his campaign in the group stage, losing two of his first three matches, came back strongly in the latter half to take the fourth and final spot in the knock-out round from Group F.
He may have not been able to put together big breaks but displayed excellent safe play skills to frustrate his opponent. He will surely have to be at his best when he plays Wilson.
The Englishman has displayed fine form since the start of the tournament and his confidence on the baize was displayed once again against Advani as he took the tie 76-47, 107-1, 80-20, 51-82, 33-75, 99-4, 80-48.
Advani struggled to find his rhythm and was trailing by three frames before he could get his name on the frame score.
A break of 42, which gave him the fifth frame, generated hopes of a revival but Wilson closed any chances of a comeback by the Indian by taking the next two frames.
