Bangalore: The euphoria of two Indians making the semifinals of a World Championship for the first time in the country’s snooker history lasted but a few hours as both — Pankaj Advani and Kamal Chawla — were sent packing in the evening on Friday.<\/p>\n
With Doordarshan not covering the event, the news of the duo’s fine show in the quarterfinals brought the crowds in hordes. Sadly, the big gathering went back home disappointed for the second straight day as most were yet to come to grips with the premature retirement of Yasin Merchant, one of India’s greatest snooker players, on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Teenage sensation Hossein Vafaei Ayouri of Iran delivered the first blow, outclassing a weary Chawla 7-2 and then former main tour player Lee Walker landed the knockout punch, sending Advani out with a lopsided 7-1 victory.<\/p>\n
The big gathering expected Advani, who was all poise and grace after a sluggish start during the 6-2 win over Peter Bullen of Belgium in the quarters in the morning, to repeat that against the diminutive Walker. That never came about.<\/p>\n
The Times Of India<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bangalore: The euphoria of two Indians making the semifinals of a World Championship for the first time in the country’s snooker history lasted but a few hours as both — Pankaj Advani and Kamal Chawla — were sent packing in the evening on Friday. With Doordarshan not covering the event, the news of the duo’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-from-the-newspapers"],"yoast_head":"\n