Laxman Rawat’s dream of making the Indian Open world-ranking snooker tournament cut was shattered when he miscued the brown and blue in the seventh frame of the wild-card-entry round here on Thursday.
Ahead by 20 points, Rawat should have potted the brown and subsequently the other three colours but it was Lilly, who took the last red and colours to clinch the match in order to make a second consecutive appearance in the Indian Open, put off to March 2015.
While Rawat felt disappointed rushing things at a crucial stage, another young player Sumit Talwar defeated Alok Kumar after trailing 1-3.
Indian Railways’ Faisal Khan eliminated India No. 2 Kamal Chawla with a convincing 4-2 victory. South Eastern Railway’s Neeraj Kumar too defeated last year’s Indian Open qualifier Manan Chandra 4-1.
The top seed in the knockout, Advani outplayed Rafat Habib 4-0 in a little over an hour. Advani, Damani, Talwar and Neeraj Kumar also made the cut.
The results: (winners get wild card for Indian Open): Pankaj Advani bt Rafat Habib 4-0 (84-51, 62-21, 69-5, 75(75)-0); Faisal Khan bt Kamal Chawla 4-2 (68-24, 131(103)-0, 25-75, 78-51, 13-77(72), 78(59)-12); Dharminder Lilly bt Laxman Rawat 4-3 (74-11, 60-39, 10-64,61-3, 5-60, 0-83, 64-50); Neeraj Kumar bt Manan Chandra 4-1 (79-16, 70-55, 86-28, 41-55, 83-37); Brijesh Damani bt Anuj Uppal 4-2 (53-57, 51-41, 81-14, 68-36, 14-72, 49-4); Sumit Talwar bt Alok Kumar 4-3 (69-22, 51-69, 33-69, 15-52, 62-16, 59-47, 59-36).