The Hash10 World Sim snooker and billiards National championship will see a three-day period of relative rest, as the qualifiers for the flagship men's senior snooker event gets underway.
The main draw for the event will begin on August 4, when snooker specialists Yasin Merchant, Aditya Mehta, Lucky Vatnani (losing finalist at the last National), Kamal Chawla and Manan Chandra will join the likes of defending champion Pankaj Advani, Rupesh Shah, Devendra Joshi, Sourav Kothari and others who participated in the billiards championship.
Tamil Nadu's challenge
Tamil Nadu's challenge in the main draw will be lead by former snooker National champion Siddharth Rao, Vijay Nichani and Loganathan.
The qualification process will see 275 participants whittled down to a mere five, who will join the 59 main draw entrants across 16 groups.
The group stage matches will be held from August 4 to 6, after which two from each group will advance to the knock-out stage.
Finale on Aug. 9
Five knock-out rounds, concluding with the final on August 9, will decide the men's snooker champion.
Ashutosh Padhy, title winner in the junior boys' snooker division, got past the first round of qualification with a 3-2 win over local lad Kirubanand.
Peter Paul (Tamil Nadu) and M.L. Lakshman (Karnataka), who gave a good account of themselves in the junior division, also progressed to the second round.
Important results (qualifying, best-of-five frames):
Arun Chugh (Del) bt Mayur (Mah) 18-43, 72-22, 77-38, 56-41; Abhishek (WB) bt Shankar (TN) 68-2, 95-10, 60-17; Peter Paul (TN) bt R. Santosh (Kar) 21-57, 77-38, 52-72, 70-1,73-38.
Anmol Deep (Pun) bt Vishalvaya (Mah) 41-59, 86-17, 67-47, 82-75; M.K. Manoj (TN) bt Salman (Mah) 65-56, 18-64, 65-52, 58-30; Prabhu Kishore (AP) bt Sakshi (Kar) 45-21, 57-13, 61-44; M.L. Laxman (Kar) bt Senthil Loganathan 44-47, 65-32, 60-41, 54-45; Mahesh Jagdale (Mah) bt Vinod (TN) 69-36, 66-12, 59-10.
Lalsang Zeal (Miz) bt Chintamani Jagdev (Mah) 21-67, 60-36, 58-32, 78-2; Himanshu Jain (AP) bt Uma Kanth (TN) 37-65, 61-9, 54-30, 52-55, 52-17.
Ashutosh Padhy (Ori) bt Kirubanand (TN) 67-39, 21-56, 65-57, 15-53, 89-4; Mohd. Minhaj (Kar) bt Chetan Rajput (Mah) 50-25, 45-35, 76-41.
Supreet (Kar) bt Shri Krishna (TN) 59-26, 46-47, 30-50, 89-42, 54-12; Imran Ganj (TN) bt P. Manish (Kar) 56-5, 61-49, 62-27; Prabhu Kishore (AP) bt Sakshi (Kar) 45-21, 57-13, 61-44.
