Third loss leaves Merchant's qualification hopes in balance

 The veteran Indian was beaten 4-3 (46-76, 62-43, 70-55, 45-65, 65-51, 25-90, 53-34) by Venezuela’s Yousef Jalal in a cliffhanger.

Merchant now has three wins and an equal number of losses to be placed fourth in Group D.

Thursday’s results (Indians only):

Men: Group D: Yousef Jalal (Ven) bt Yasin Merchant (Ind) 4-3 (46-76, 62-43, 70-55, 45-65, 65-51, 25-90, 53-34). Group E: Pankaj Advani (Ind) bt Ryan Somaratne (SL) 4-0 (68-35, 31-64, 73-55, 70-19). Women: Group B: Vidya Pillai (Ind) bt Armaghan Hassani (Ira) 3-0 (56-42, 68-21, 65-20).

Masters: Group C: SA Saleem (Ind) bt Ng Yam Shui (HK) 3-2 (67-29, 46-82, 78-0, 54-64, 78-67).

Group E: Arvind Savur (Ind) bt Clive Thomson (NZ) 3-0 (52-31, 51-40, 60-59).
Group F: Nadeem Azeez Sait (Ind) bt Ahmad Al Tarkait (Kuw) 3-0 (72-50, 63-51, 53-44); NA Sait bt Mohammad Alsamhari (KSA) 3-0 (43-34, 51-38, 50-19).