Mumbai: Manav Panchal became the last player to enter the top-32 knock-out draw of the ₹12.25 lakh prize-money CCI all-India Open snooker championship 2018 at the Wilson Jones Billiards room here on Wednesday.

A joint secretary of the Billiards and Snooker Association of Maharashtra (BSAM), Panchal, down 1-3 in the fourth qualifying set to seven frames, won the last three frames to score a stunning 4-3 win over K. Venkatesham of Railways. Panchal will run into Sourav Kothari in a first-round knockout match on Thursday.

From Thursday, India’s top players, including its only professional Aditya Mehta, the recently crowned national champion Sumit Talwar, many times national winner Pankaj Advani, Malkeet Singh, Alok Kumar and Manan Chandra will be seen in action.

Mehta, who is recovering from a neck injury, is the second seed behind Advani. There were doubts about his participation, but on Wednesday Mehta confirmed to the tournament secretary Nikhil Ootam that he will turn up for his first-round match against Uttar Pradesh’s Akshay Kumar.

Advani will take on Railways’s Aravind Kumar in the first round.

Also in the main draw is Sonic Multani, who gave up playing the sports after an initial bright phase of seven years in the 1990s. “I felt like playing again and I have been practising,” said Multani, who has played in couple of tournaments in the last two years.

The results (fourth round):

Rahul Sachdev bt Rafat Habib 4-2 (6-101(56), 1-83(67), 79(79)-8, 65(65)-62(43), 96(52)-5, 63(62)-25); Manav Panchal bt K. Venkatesham 4-3 (46-84, 56-7, 50-63, 55-66, 64-62, 66-21, 78-9); Taaha Khan bt Mukund Bharadia 4-3 (37-10, 16-89 (53), 42-49, 2-92(82), 65-43, 72-43, 73-31); R. Girish bt Bharat Sissodia 4-1 (65 (56)-60(60), 42-65, 64-50, 58-48, 58-44); Arvind Kumar bt Niraj Vasava 4-0 (83 (36)-14, 71-19, 60-47, 62-45); Nitesh Madan bt Narsidani Johnson 4-1 (32-73, 71-67(53), 79(50)-47, 63-2, 62-45).

Rajat Khaneja bt Nabil Lakdawala 4-1 (65-53, 41-63, 65-8, 77(77)-0, 72-24); Sundeep Gulati bt Abhijeet Ranade 4-2 (52-56, 65(57)-9, 42-76, 50-41, 107(95)-13, 68-4); Abhimanyu Gandhi bt Kanish Jhanjharia 4-1 (76-16, 68-42, 45-52, 62-23, 64-19); Ishpreet Singh Chadha bt Ketan Chawla 4-3 (60-22, 24-63, 46-57, 83-35, 15-60, 68-17, 65(61)-16); Brijesh Damani bt Anuj Uppal 4-0 (67-5, 74-46, 70-47, 72-65); Sidhraj Shah bt Anand Raghuvanshi 4-2 (67-33, 76-86, 15-74, 59-10, 73-48, 65-31).