Pankaj Advani, Chawla, Merchant and Shahbaz make semis

Mumbai (PTI): Top seed Pankaj Advani would meet fourth seed Kamal Chawla while seventh seed and defending champion Yasin Merchant would take on sixth seed Shahbaz Khan in the semi-finals of the Rs 3.77 lakh CCI Platinum Jubilee Invitation Snooker Tournament here on Thursday.

In Wednesday's best-of-nine-frame quarter-finals, Chawla of Railways ousted six-time national title winner Alok Kumar (Petroleum Sports Promotion Board) 5-2 while Bangalore-based Advani, also of PSPB, subdued a fighting Rupesh Shah of Railways 5-3.

Mumbai-based Merchant rallied from behind twice to shock second seed Manan Chandra of PSPB 5-4 to earn a berth against Shahbaz (Railways), who got the better of Sandeep Gulati of Delhi 5-3 in two other quarter-final.

Merchant, a former two-time Asian champion, was trailing 2-3 and then 3-4 before clinching a close eighth frame to draw level with his PSPB rival Chandra.

The holder, who had two significant breaks of 82 and 59, then took control of the deciding ninth frame in a determined fashion to win the well-contested quarter-final match.

Chawla jumped to a 3-0 lead before his rival Alok Kumar fought back to take the fourth frame. But the winner once again nosed ahead and, after allowing his opponent clinch the sixth, wrapped up the tie by easily grabbing the seventh frame.

The results:

Quarter-finals: Yasin Merchant (Mah) bt Manan Chandra (PSPB) 5-4 (86-0, 33-70, 84-39, 0-85, 15-57, 70-38, 5-97, 55-51, 70-34); Shahbaz Khan (Rlys) bt Sandeep Gulati (Del) 5-3 (78-16, 74-18, 1-83, 84-54, 21-93, 92-20).

Kamal Chawla (Rlys) bt Alok Kumar (PSPB) 5-2 (68-36, 74-35, 85-28, 56-72, 60-56, 18-81, 69-19); Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Rupesh Shah (Rlys) 5-3 (78-21, 29-77, 84-11, 49-60, 76-42, 72-14, 20-64, 79-69).

Pre quarter finals: Chandra bt Nikhli Ottam (Mah) 4-2 (96-38, 62-9, 76-0, 36-60, 51-59, 79-32); Merchant bt Devendra Joshi (PSPB) 4-1 (54-72, 74-24, 81-19, 72-48, 94-22).