Cueist Advani goes down to Williams

Sheffield, April 14 (IANS) Indian champion Pankaj Advani blew a 7-4 lead to lose 7-10 against Robbie Williams in the final qualifying round of the World Professional Snooker Championship here.

Williams won six frames on the trot to deny victory to the 28-year-old Bangalorean, who thus joined compatriot Aditya Mehta on the sidelines Sunday. Mehta went down 5-10 to Jamie Jones Saturday.

Trailing 3-4, Advani took the next four frames for a 7-4 advantage and looked set to wrapping up the match. However, Jones came up with a break of 62 in the 12th frame to begin his fightback even as Advani yielded ground.

Earlier in the best-of-19 frames match, Advani had posted breaks of 78 and 73 while Williams responded with runs of 51 and 50 before finishing off with four more half-century breaks to seal the issue.

Mehta too initially kept pace with his opponent Jones, who then took control by winning five frames in a row to move to 7-3. Mehta managed to snatch the 11th and 12th frames to stay in the hunt but Jones came roaring back to win three more frames back-to-back for the match.

While Mehta had no breaks over 50, Jones, who started the match with a run of 108 in the first frame, followed it up with 68, 50 and 65.