Sethi scores easy win

Another contender Ashok Shandilya of Railways, got 109 points in his 16th visit against Rajasthan8217;s Prateek Luhadia. He had two more breaks of 93 and 90 to total 949 in the stipulated two hours. Luhadia could reply with only 276 points without any significant visits. Devender Joshi did not have to use his cue at all as his opponent Antim Singh of Railways failed to turn up. Singh also allowed Orissa8217;s Gautam Sahoo to walk away with full points. There was another walk-over on the day when Gautam Sahoo conceded his match against Delhi8217;s Siddharth Anand.

Nalin Patel continued with his winning ways with a century break in his 798 as against M Sirivatsa8217;s 387. S Simachalam of Railways amassed 932 points with small breaks against A Haque of Orissa, who ended up with 314. Tamil Nadu8217;s Prem Prakash too could not produce any big breaks in his 572-514 win over Shakil Ahmed of West Bengal. The best contest, however, proved to be between two lesser known players. Punjab8217;s Dharmender Lilly just about managed to beat Madhya Pradesh8217;s Rajnish Bansal 620-592.

Late yesterday, former world amateur billiards champion Manoj Kothari gave an excellent display of skills and consistency with a colossal total of 1086 against qualifier Shyam Jagtiani8217;s 387. Kothari, in the process registered a break of 279 in his 18th visit, the highest in the tournament so far.