Delhi cueist Madan advances in qualifying stage

Mumbai: Young Delhi cueist Varun Madan registered an exciting 4-2 victory to advance to the last-16 of the qualifying rounds in the Ekta World Shyam Shroff Memorial Open Invitation Snooker Tournament organised and hosted by Khar Gymkhana here on Wednesday.

Madan, who snatched a close opening frame in the best- of-seven contest, recovered from a 1-2 deficit to score a 52-38, 45-80, 14-53, 69-60, 71-38, 69-9 win over Sunil Jain of Mumbai. Other significant winners, who joined Madan in the next qualifying round, were 17-year-old sub-junior national champion Dhwaj Haria of Ahmedabad, Balaji Reddy of Karnataka, veteran Rafath Habib, Neeraj Kumar and Siddharth Parikh of Railways, Dhruv Sitwala of ONGC, Roshan Mirchandani of the host gymkhana and lucky loser Arun Agrawal.Four players will qualify for the elite round robin main draw, where they will be joined in four groups of five players each by Khar Gymkhana qualifiers Deepak Khubchandani, Haresh Pahuja, Reza Merchant and Goldie Kohli. Two players from each group will qualify for the quarter final knock out. PTI