I let disturbance affect me: Advani

Vanquis­hed by Chinese teenage sensation Yan Bingtao, an out of sorts Pankaj Advani said he allowed the distraction from the stands to get the better of him and hoped for better behavior from them in future tournaments

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In a game where concentration is of utmost importance and every millimetre counts, there were constant movements from the stands, completely distracting the Bengalurean. Not to mention the constant ringing of mobile phones and people chatting, the 29-year-old, lacking rhy­t­hm for most part of the encounter, lost his composure and things came to a boiling point when he asked the referee to demand silence from the stands.

Soon after, the organisers also intervened, all that drama seemingly putting Advani off.
“I’m not feeling bad that I lost, but I’m feeling bad that there were certain things that affected me and it is not that I’m blaming it on them,” said Advani. “Part of it was because of the fact that I was disturbed. The environment was just not conducive for snooker. While I thank all of them for coming out and supporting all of us, I wish they were better educated about the game.

“I could hear noise from too many sides. It was just not one seating area that was a problem, there were too many movements. If you want to get into a rhythm you need to be silent, you need to be just on the game. I never really found that atmosphere and that environment to get into that rhythm, which I normally do.

“I think I just let that disturbance affect me. Maybe as a professional I should have dealt with that better. You may be thinking it is a case of sour grapes — because he lost he is saying it.”

Advani had a great chance to push the contest into a decider but missed a simple brown ball pot in the 10th frame that gifted the match on a platter to Bingtao. Realizing the magnitude of that error, Advani just sunk his head on the table, knowing he had just stepped towards the exit door.

“No, that had nothing to do with the crowd. I just played a bad shot under pressure. It was one of those shots where you have to play a very tricky stun-follow shot. It eventually comes down to adjusting to the conditions which I couldn’t.”