Shandilya in last 8

Also making to the last eight were ex-national champion Alok Kumar, who beat Aditya Goenka (Guj) 4-1 (56-65, 71-21, 106-12, 60-41, 63-16), Dharmendra Lilly (Pun), a 4-2 (36-70, 68-30, 65-69, 65-15, 71-8, 57-19) winner over Rafat Habib (Rlys) and former Asian amateur champion Yasin Merchant, who defeated IH Manu Dev 4-0 (78-38, 78-12, 36-22, 56-1).

Shandilya was a frame down but did not give Shakeel any chance, winning the next two with breaks of 58 (2nd frame) and 40 (3rd).

Shakeel produced a 84 in the fourth frame to draw level 2-2 and could have taken the match to the decider when thetwo players were tied 62-62 in the sixth frame but Shandilya potted the black for a 69-62 win. Siddharth Rao won the first frame easily but then lost his concentration and was 2-3 down before he checked himself to come up with breaks of 40 and wraped up the issue 80-32, 55-64, 71-36, 41-68, 45-61, 63-12, 82-4.