Updated on Wednesday, November 04, 2009, 18:53 IST Tags:Asian Games

Hanoi: Ace Indian cueist Pankaj Advani crashed out but compatriot Manan Chandra kept medal hopes alive in the 15-Red Snooker discipline of the third Indoor Asian Games here today.

Advani, who displayed immense maturity and depth in his techniques to win both his encounters yesterday, was not at his usual best and lost 65-10 49-81 41-65 72-67 11-56 68-42 39-65 against Jin Long of China today.

However, Delhi boy Chandra will carry India's hopes when he takes a shot at a bronze medal during his fight with UAE's Mohamed Mustafa Al- Hashmi for the third place tomorrow.

Chandra rode high on some gutsy potting and cushion work to advance to the semifinals stage of the tournament after sniffing past Wenbo Liang of China (4-0) 65-43 61-58 61-30 78-34 in the quarterfinals.

In the semifinal, he was leading 3-2 till halfway but he soon lost the plot and made some potting errors to give away the match to his opponent Nadeer Khan Sultani 3-4.

Chandra lost 75-17 64-73 16-68 44-42 52-42 22-62 36-54 to Sultani.

In the 8-Ball pool discipline of women singles, Meenal Thakur and Anuja Chandra failed to surge ahead of the initial rounds and crashed out of the event.

Thakur lost (2-5) to Singapore's Zeet Huey Charlene Chai, while Chandra went down to Vietnam's Thuy Vi Duong 4-5.

Bureau Report