Merchant, who beat Pakistan's Mohd Saleh with his last pot to begin with and then sailed past Pang Wei-Guo of China 5-1 in the morning looked, well set to cruise into the last four before his seasoned rival fought back and eventually won in the deciding frame of the best-of-nine frame encounter.

The 32-year-old Merchant raced to 2-0 frame lead but his rival fought back as the frame score went neck-and-neck to be 2-all and 3-all.

Sam Chung tallied up a century break of 107 in the seventh to lead 4-3, but the Indian cueist produced an even better effort of 109 in the next to push the affair into the thrilling final frame.

But Merchant, nursing hopes of winning the first medal for India in the green baize game making its debut here, faltered to give his opponent an opening which theMalaysian grabbed to reel off a break of 76 which settled the issue and put the Indian out.

Merchant lost the thrilling affair 99-17, 98-0, 34-74, 31-55, 75-21, 37-62, 4-107, 109-0 and 0-76. The Indian had breaks of 40 (first), 52 (second) showing early flourish and then tallied 59 (fifth) and 109 (eighth). Chong scored breaks of 40 (fifth) and 109 (eighth) and 76 in the final frame.

Indian hopes also vanished in the carom three-cushion singles when reigning World billiards champion Geet Sethi and Mukesh Rehani both went down in first round.

Sethi, adding carom to his main event of billiards where he is the favourite, went down tamely to Reynaldo Grandea of the Philippines 23-50 while Mukesh Rehani fought well showing his snooker prowess before narrowly succumbing to Yao Huei Yang of Taipei.

Earlier in the morning, Merchant beat Pang Wei-Guo in the last 16 with a 5-1 verdict (46-72, 77-46, 73-26, 66-18, 62-56) but the second singles entrant Alok Kumar went down 3-5 to Pakistan No 1 Shokat Ali (6-73,52-72, 64-13, 40-76, 56-1, 53-19, 15-80).

The snooker table continued to pile on upsets as Hong Kong's star Marco Fu Ka-Chun followed in the footsteps of Thai superstar James Wattana who was shocked in the first round. The 21-year-old Fu was scalped 3-5 by Ooi Chin Kay of Malayisa 85-9, 60-47, 9-72, 77-63, 13-70, 63-37, 0-116, 69-61.