Four Indians enters into Asian Billiards quarter finals

04 April 2013

After completion of Round Robin stage of 12th ONGC Asian Billiards championship 2013, four Indian cueists, Rupesh Shah, Alok Kumar, B. Bhaskar and K. Venkatesham advanced to next level i.e. Knockout (Quarter final) stage. The championship is being held in Indore Tennis Club, Indore, Madhya Pradesh in India.

Today after last session of Round Robin, Rupesh claimed the top seed without losing any game out of all three matches he played. Today he played against Nguyen Thanh Long of Vietnam and won the match in style 4-NIL scoring breaks of 101 and 99 points in opening two games.

In Group D, Alok Kumar remained group topper without losing any match. However, he finished as seed No.3. The other two Indians, Bhaskar and Venkatesham finishes as No.2 in their respective groups.

Apart from Indians, the other four players qualified for knockout stage are Praput Chaithanasukan and Thawat Sujaritthurakarn from Thailand; Nay Thway Oo from Myanmar and Nguyen Thanh Binh from Vietnam.

The quarter final lineup is: Rupesh Shah (India) vs. Nay Thway Oo (Myanmar); Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (Thailand) vs. Nguyen Thanh Binh (Vietnam); Alok Kumar (India) vs. B. Bhaskar (India); and Praput Chaithanasukan (Thailand) vs. K. Venkatesham (India).

In 14th ONGC Asian Snooker (Under-21) matches, Rahul Sachdev from India had a lucky day as he registered his first win of this championship after previous two losses. Today he defeated Badr Obaid Khalifa (UAE) 4-NIL (64-47, 73-09, 63-50, 65-31).

The other Indian youngsters, Ishpreet Chadha, Malkeet Singh and Vishal Vaya continued on losing track as they lost their matches against Wan Nansen Sin Man (Hongkong), Ratchayothin Yotharuck (Thailand) and Ko Htet (Myanmar) respectively.

Muhammad Majid Ali of Pakistan demonstrated good game against Maung Maung (Myanmar) and defeated him 4-2 scoring 92-57, 55-13, 68(57)-25, 15-63(37), 64(50)-67, 84(47)-47.