Mumbai, March 7 (IANS): Some of the world's top cueists, led by No.1 and defending champion Ding Junhui of China, will be participating in the second edition of the Indian Open world snooker ranking tournament to be held here from March 10 to 14.
Also in the fray are Indian hopes Aditya Mehta, runner-up in the event last held in 2013, and national champion Pankaj Advani, holder of 12 world titles, who gave up his professional ticket last year after a two-season stint.
The tournament, offering a total prize-money of 300,000 pounds, is being organised by the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India (BSFI) at the Grand Hyatt Hotel and was formally launched on Saturday.
BSFI president P.V.K. Mohan, along with tournament director Mike Ganley from England, S. Balasubramaniam, secretary general of BSFI and Devendra Joshi, former Asian billiards champion were present on the occasion.
Mohan, who is also the president of the International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF), said: "We are indeed very happy and thrilled to be here in Mumbai for the second edition of the Indian Open. The first event in New Delhi in October 2013 was a stupendous success and we hope that this event will be even better. We chose Mumbai as the host city because this sport is very popular here and in the state of Maharashtra.
"The BSFI feels that this tournament has to move around the country. The Indian Open is an annual affair and it will be hosted by different cities in India. Next year, we will take the event to Chennai and later to other parts of the country."
The top 64 players in the world have qualified for the tournament, having participated in the qualifiers in Barnsley, England, last month while the BSFI identified six Indian wild cards after qualifying.
The 27-year-old Junhui defeated England's Barry Pinches 4-1 and the 29-year-old Mumbai cueist Mehta, the only Indian who has a Tour Card, blanked Hammad Miah, also of England, 4-0 to secure their places in the tournament proper.
India's most celebrated cueist, Advani, along with five others will participate in the pre-tournament wild card qualifying round. The other Indians, apart from Advani, who earned wild card tickets are Neeraj Kumar, Brijesh Damani, Dharmendra Lilly, Sumit Talwar and Faisal Khan.
Apart from Junhui, the likes of four times World Champion John Higgins of Scotland, Mark Williams (Wales), Ken Doherty (Ireland) and Englishman Peter Ebdon will be star attractions.
This year, the field has a strong Asian challenge with 11 players from the region, including Junhui and Mehta, having qualified for the main draw.
The tournament will be played on a knockout basis and all matches up to and including semi-finals will be of best-of-7 frames and the final will be played over best-of-9 frames.
The prize money break-up is: Winner: 50,000 pounds, runner-up: 25,000 pounds, semi-finalists: 13,500 pounds, quarter-finalists: 9,000 pounds, Round 3 losers: 6,000 pounds, Round 2 losers: 3,000 pounds each, Round 1 losers: 2,000 pounds each.