China’s 14-year-old Yan Bingtao today scripted a sensational upset as he sent Indian ace Pankaj Advani packing with a 6-4 victory in the quarter-finals of the Seaways IBSF World Snooker Championship, here today.
On the day at the Sree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium, Advani, who has 12 world titles across all formats till date, could not concentrate on his game and did not play big points as the Chinese schoolboy.
Advani could barely contain his frustration as he blasted the crowd for causing distractions during the match resulting in him breaking down at crucial stages of the match. At one point, the chief referee had to be called and request the crowd to maintain silence.
However, the bottom line was that Advani, who spent two years on the professional tour, attaining a best ranking of 58 before returning to amateur fold earlier this year to focus on billiards, did not play well enough against Bingtao, who made better use of the openings. “I was repeatedly distracted by movements in the crowd. I know that as a professional, I should not allow these distractions to impact my game, but today, it did. Also, I missed too many balls and did not utilise the chances that came my way,” said Advani.
“I didn’t score heavily enough to hurt my opponent. Bingtao also did not play too well but capitalised on the chances I gave him. The bottom line was that I didn’t play well and didn’t deserve to win.”
There was little to separate Advani and Bingtao. The Indian took a 2-0 lead with a break of 57 in the second frame but Bingtao came roaring back to take the third on a run of 107 as the Chinese won three frames in a row for a 3-2 lead before Advani caught up at 3-3.
A break of 79 gave Bingtao the seventh frame but again Advani levelled by taking a close eighth. Thereafter, both players were tense and committed too many errors but the young Chinese kept his wits about him to go 5-4 up.
Advani had his chances in the crucial 10th frame, especially at the business end when he was on a clearance to make it 5-5 but a miss on the brown which he attempted with a stun-follow shot to come for the blue, left Bingtao on and the Chinese gobbled up the colours to seal the match.
Bingtao, who had beaten Indian hope Pankaj Advani 6-4 in the quarter-finals earlier in the day, was stretched to breakpoint by Lertsattayathom in a marathon semi-final that lasted four hours and saw just two half-century breaks – 54 by the Chinese and 62 by the Thai.
In the best-of-15 frames final on Saturday, Sajjad, who beat India’s Manan Chandra 6-1 in the previous round, takes on another Chinese, 14-year old Yan Bingtao who won a battle of attrition 7-5 against Thailand’s Kritsnut Lertsattayathom in a match that lasted four hours.
