Stephen Maguire pins down Pankaj Advani

Hyderabad: Pankaj Advani fought tooth and nail before going down 3-4 to Stephen Maguire as home challenge in the Indian Open world ranking snooker championships came to an end on Thursday. In a closely-contested second round match at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre, Pankaj took the first frame 65-19 only for Maguire to come right back with an 85-0 win. The Scot took the third too, closely at 57-62 and took a 3-1 lead with a 65-15 in the fourth frame.

However, Pankaj grabbed the fifth and sixth at 58-1 and 77-44 to level the frames and take it to a tense decider, in which Maguire made calculated moves to stay ahead. Pankaj hopes rest on his rival’s mistakes with the score reading 55-42 in Maguire’s favour and 18 points left in the final frame, but the Scot did not slip, and closed it out 66-42. In another match, Kyren Wilson produced a superb fightback to overcome China’s Xiao Guodong. The 2015 Shanghai Masters champion looked to be heading for a last 32 exit, after Guodong made runs of 97, 58 and 83 to race to a 3-0 lead. However, a resilient Wilson responded with breaks of 44 and 53 in the next two frames to drag himself back into the match. The Englishman then completed a run of four frames on the bounce to secure a last 16 spot.

World No. 4 number 4 Shaun Murphy also survived a scare against Michael Georgiou. He had led 3-1, but 28-year-old Georgiou responded, winning the fifth and making 81 in the sixth to level at 3-3. A tense decider went the way of the ‘Magician’ who booked his place in Friday’s last 16 against Oliver Lines. Dominic Dale was a shock 4-0 winner over world number 12 Marco Fu.

The Results:

Second round: Stephen Magquire (Scotland) bt Pankaj Advani (India) 4-3 (19-65, 85(63)-0, 62(62)-57, 65(51)-15, 1-58, 44-77, 66-42); Barry Hawkins (England) bt Rory McLeod (England) 4-2 (137(102)-0, 87(58)-27, 74-36, 41-70, 50-65, 72-0);  Kyren Wilson (England) bt Xiao Guodong (China) 4-3 (14-97(97), 67-74(58), 9-83(83), 75-23, 63(53)-24, 81-1, 57-19); Oliver Lines (England) bt Andrew Higginson (England) 4-2 (70(59)-20, 50-75, 64-30, 13-65(59), 93(59)-30, 79-48); Dominic Dale (Wales) bt Marco Fu (Hong Kong) 4-0 (99(54)-28, 66-35, 56-12, 57-20); Shaun Murphy (England) bt Michael Georgiou (Cyprus) 4-3 (86(57)-0, 7-63(52), 68-31, 89(52)-0, 10-68, 6-86(82), 56-7); Anthony McGill (Scotland) bt Mathew Selt (England) 4-2 (80(80)-8, 59(51)-15, 1-67(67), 79(79)-33, 23-72, 83(83)-51(51)); Robert Milkins (England) bt Joe Swail (Northern Ireland) 4-1 (72-1, 1-70, 140(140)-0, 69-44, 83(54)-1); Gary Wilson (England) bt Anthony Hamilton (England) 4-2 (69-63, 72-39, 87-0, 1-135 (127), 0-111(69), 76(70)-0); David Lilley (England) bt Mark Williams (Wales) 4-3 (65(57)-68, 70-31, 51-53, 65-30, 81(59)-10, 0-74(74), 72-40); Peter Edbon (England) bt Duane Jones (Wales) 4-1 (63-18, 65-47, 64-46, 14-75(71), 85(57)-8).