Chennai: Defending champion Pankaj Advani crashed out of the 78th National Snooker Championship after losing to club-mate Alok Kumar in the quarter finals, on Monday.

Advani lost 59-27, 47-58, 63-31, 76-63, 44-73, 67-66, 66-58.

Another PSPB cueist Aditya Mehta, with two century breaks, also progressed to the semi-finals.

The day’s proceedings featured two promising youngsters, Neeraj Kumar of Railways and IM Manudev of Karnataka, making their maiden entry into the last four stage.

Neeraj got the better of Rafath Habib (also of Railways) 43-82, 59-29, 66-58, 68-58, 40-65, 41-50, 55-47, 14-76, 45-29, while Manudev defeated Manan Chandra (PSPB) 15-79, 68-31, 59-12, 43-74, 66-25, 33-79, 85-0, 70-43. In the semi-finals on Tuesday, Neeraj will play Alok Kumar and Manudev will take on Aditya Mehta.

Advani, who has been in good nick throughout the championship in billiards and in the earlier two rounds in snooker, was off colour and played poorly. On the other hand, Mehta, the lone Indian on the world professional circuit and finalists in Asian championship earlier this year, had breaks of 134 and 124 while clearing the table.

Kumar, who generally plays more of pool games, said that he was mediocre, on Monday, and could not concentrate.

“I was mediocre. I didn’t play well nor did Pankaj. In fact, I am surprised that I have reached the semi-finals. Just yesterday (Sunday), Pankaj and I were discussing the art of winning today, I was struggling all the time, but just hung in there and took my chances.”