Indian Open from July 5

Defending champion Michael White and World champion Stuart Bingham are among the big names who will be in action in the third edition of the Indian Open world-ranking snooker tournament to be held from July 5 to 9 at the HICC Novotel Hotel here.

Reigning world champion Pankaj Advani, BSFI president Capt. P. V. K. Mohan, K. Vishweshwar Reddy, MP and president of Telangana Cue Sports Association, and World Games champion Aditya Mehta at the launch of Indian Open world ranking snooker tournament in Hyderabad on Thursday.

Defending champion Michael White and World champion Stuart Bingham are among the big names who will be in action in the third edition of the Indian Open world-ranking snooker tournament to be held from July 5 to 9 at the HICC Novotel Hotel here.

Capt. P. V. K. Mohan, president of the International Billiards and Snooker Federation, announced at a press-conference that 64 best players from the 128 in the fray in the qualifiers held in England had made it to the Hyderabad edition.

The Indian challenge will be led by IBSF world champion Pankaj Advani and Aditya Mehta. World No. 4 Shaun Murphy, last year’s runner-up Ricky Walden and some promising Chinese players will also be part of the field.

India No. 2 Manan Chandra, Ishpreet Chadha, Lucky Vatnani, Kamal Chawla and Dilip Kumar have been given wild-cards.

The format will be the same as in the earlier versions: best-of-seven frames till the final which will be best-of-nine.