JOIN USAditya Mehta posted two century breaks to complete the semifinal line-up here Monday.
In the semifinals to be played on Tuesday morning, Neeraj, who put out Rafath Habib 5-4, takes on Alok Kumar, who was shocked at his 5-2 win over Advani, while Manudev, a 5-3 winner over inconsistent Manan Chandra, meets Mehta, who overcame Kamal Chawla 5-2.
The 25-year old Mehta crafted fluent breaks of 134 and 124 while clearing the table, but the highlight was Advani’s elimination in a match that lasted over three hours and witnessed some shockingly poor snooker.
Alok Kumar put it aptly when he said: “I was mediocre. I didn’t play well nor did Pankaj. In fact, I am surprised that I have reached the semifinals.
Advani said: “I was just not in the match today and played poor snooker, may be 30 per cent of what I could. It was one of those matches when nothing went right.
Results: Quarterfinals (best of 9 frames): Aditya Mehta (PSPB) bt Kamal Chawla (Rlys) 5-2 (60-32, 134 (134)-0, 39-77, 138 (124)-0, 15-63 (53), 63-27, 72-9); IH Manudev bt Manan Chandra (PSPB) 5-3 (15-79, 68-31, 59-12, 43-74, 66-25, 33-79, 85-0, 70-43); Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Pankaj Advani (PSPB) 5-2 (59-27, 47-58, 63-31, 76-63, 44-73, 67-66, 66-58); Neeraj Kumar (Rlys) bt Rafath Habib (Rlys) 5-4 (43-82, 59-29, 66-58, 68-58, 40-65, 41-50, 55-47, 14-76, 45-29). Pre-quarterfinals (best of 7 frames): Advani bt Subrat Das (Ori) 4-0 (110-16, 75-35, 54-41, 65-34); Chandra bt Rupesh Shah (PSPB) 4-0 (68-55, 61-37, 60-8, 65-51); Mehta bt Siddarth Rao (TN) 4-1 (78-20, 76-1, 73-45, 21-69, 77-6); Neeraj bt Brijesh Damani (WB) 4-2 (69-16, 76-44, 77-1, 27-58, 2-80, 62-7); Chawla bt Yasin Merchant (Mah) 4-3 (39-69, 81-0, 51-71, 88-14, 77-0, 22-54, 68-54); Alok bt Vijay Goel (Del) 4-3 (45-52, 46-67, 73-54, 38-60, 61-28, 74-24, 67-59); Manudev bt Pushpinder Singh (Pnb) 4-3 (17-56, 15-68, 65-0, 57-43, 81-35, 49-56, 86-1); Rafath bt Sourav Kothari (PSPB) 4-1 (66-64, 63-46, 21-62, 64-51, 55-26).