Shandilya, Joshi set up PQF clash

Meanwhile, Siddharth Anand of Delhi maintained a clean slate, winning all the four matches in Group H, and qualified for the pre-quarters. He will take on last year’s runner-up Sarang Shroff (Mah) on Saturday. Anand struggled to beat Antim Singhi of Railways. The winner was down 2-3 at one stage. However, he bounced back to win 4-3 (35-75, 39-80, 72-58, 92-07, 49-58, 62-28 and 60-41.

In Junior National billiards, Pankaj Advani (Kar) and Manan Chandra (Del) had easy wins in their first semi-final league matches. Advani beat Jaswinder Singh (Raj) 1449-505 while Chandra fought back after trailing 416-518 against Kamal Chawla (MP) and won 956-835.

RESULTS

S Shankar (AP) bt Amish Parikh (Bhi) 4-1 (23-50, 44-33, 55-35, 48-44, 52-39); Mohammed Asim (WB) bt Sanjiv Gupa (J&K) 4-3 (81-08, 50-33, 30-47, 21-52, 52-63, 67-24, 53-32), Ashok Shandilya (Rly) bt BVS Murthy (Kar) 4-1 (01-70, 67-28, 93-43, 58-41, 58-44), A Haque (Orissa) w/o SB Agarwal (Rly), B Bhaskar (Kar) bt Kamal Rohmetra (J&K) 4-0 (57-41, 73-44, 58-47, 72-30), Siddarth Anand (Del) bt Antim Singhi (Rly) 4-3 (35-75, 39-80, 72-58, 92-07, 49-58, 62-28, 60-41), K Ranjan (TN) w/o Harish Gandhi (MP), Sarang Shroff (Mah) bt Sajiv Gupta (J&K) 4-0 (129-00, 91-09, 85-24, 66-23), Rafath Habib (Rly) bt Lalith (Har) 4-0 (83-22, 8-21, 99-03, 62-34).