Defending champion Alok Kumar and last year's finalist, Devendra Joshi will clash in the pre-quarterfinals of the 72nd BSNL national snooker championship in Chennai on Tuesday.

In their respective knockout-matches in the draw of 32, Alok Kumar disposed of Harish Gandhi of Madhya Pradesh 47-80, 60-40, 79-28, 98-33, 68-41 and was involved in a heated argument with Gandhi at the end of the fourth frame.

In fact, Gandhi was to blame for using foul language in front of the spectators and players, including Pankaj Advani, who was standing close to the table.

The incident occurred when Alok Kumar had a break of over 45 in the fourth and Gandhi had asked the referee to set the table for the fifth frame. At this point, Alok Kumar told Gandhi to play. The latter took it as an insult and started shouting at his rival. However, better sense prevailed after the intervention of the Players' Council members.

Kumar won after a three hour duel, while Joshi defeated Sumit Talwar (Chandigarh) 77-41, 25-76, 63-56, 70-26, 36-72, 58-10.

On the other hand, former world IBSF snooker champion, Pankaj Advani and Geet Sethi (GUJ) meant business, wrapping up their matches in quick time to progress to the next stage. These two will now clash in the pre-quarterfinals tomorrow.

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Among the cueists on view today, Geet Sethi stood out with his technical prowess and had two breaks of 82 in the second and 84 in the fourth frame for a decisive 80-39, 103-1, 68-24, 98-8 win in about 40 minutes against Arpit Seth, the Punjab number one.

Advani eliminated Oomar Balsara 67-25, 76-51, 87-20, 34-64, 73-11. He had a 49 break in the third frame and 72 in the fourth.

Earlier, Siddarth Rao, Niraj Kumar, Yasin Merchant, Faizal Khan, Aditya Gokena, Manan Chandra, Ashok Shandilya and Siddarth Anand won their matches to move to the next stage.