Four Indians move into last eight

Alok Kumar, Rupesh Shah, B. Bhaskar and K. Venkatesham reached the quarterfinals of the ONGC Asian billiards championship here on Thursday. Alok and Rupesh recorded their third straight wins to qualify for the knockout stage. Bhaskar, who suffered the only loss against Shah, advanced as the second cueist from Group B. Venkatesham, who had a win and a loss, made the cut after Thailand’s Thawat Sujaritthurakarn beat Myanmar’s Aung Htay.

The results (Indians unless specified): Billiards: Group A: Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (Thai) bt Aung Htay (Myn) 88-104(83), 100(94)-8, 100(68)-33, 101(60)-7, 100(54)-20; Group B: Praput Chaithanasukan (Thai) bt Ashok Shandilya 7-101, 101(56)-50, 1000(98)-6, 100(100)-0, 100(92)-0. Group C: Rupesh Shah bt Nguyen Thanh Long (Vie) 100(101)-5, 101(99)-33, 101-61, 100(61)-15. Group D: Alok Kumar bt Surya Suwannasinh (Thai) 100-29, 50-100, 100(71)-66, 100(45)-73, 41-100(53), 100-22.

Under-21 snooker: Group A: Rahul Sachdev bt Badr Obaid Khalifa (UAE) 64-47, 73-9, 63-50, 65-31; Wan Nansen Sin Man (HK) bt Ishpreet Chadha 52-7, 45-75, 80-21, 40-82, 63-46, 75-37.

Group C: Ratchayothin Yotharuck (Thai) bt Malkeet Singh 22-64, 74(43)-7, 110(67)-9, 90(90)-0, 80-35; Ko Htet (Myn) bt Vishal Vaya 76-29, 7-60, 64-23, 61-70, 50-18, 69-40; Group D: Mohammad Majid Ali (Pak) bt Maung Maung (Myn) 92-57, 55-13, 68(57)-25, 15-63(37), 64(50)-67, 84(47)-47.