Four Indians in Asian billiards QF

Four Indian cueists booked quarter-final berths in the 12th ONGC Asian Billiards Championship after the completion of round-robin stage in Indore on Thursday.

Rupesh Shah, Alok Kumar, B Bhaskar and K Venkatesham advanced to the knock-out stage after winning their respective matches at the Indore Tennis Club.

Rupesh claimed the top seeding winning all three matches he played. On Thursday, he blanked Nguyen Thanh Long of Vietnam 4-0, scoring breaks of 101 and 99 points in opening two games.

Alok Kumar topped Group D without losing a match. However, he finished as number three.

Bhaskar and Venkatesham, the other two Indians, finished as number two in their respective groups.

Apart from the Indians, the other four players who qualified for knock-out stage are Praput Chaithanasukan and Thawat Sujaritthurakarn from Thailand, Nay Thway Oo from Myanmar and Nguyen Thanh Binh from Vietnam.

Friday's quarter-final line-up:

Rupesh Shah vs Nay Thway Oo; Thawat Sujaritthurakarn vs Nguyen Thanh Binh; Alok Kumar vs B Bhaskar; Praput Chaithanasukan vs K Venkatesham.