Arun Agarwal in pre-quarters

Arun Agarwal of Maharashtra topped Group 'H' in the National billiards championship, defeating Shyam Jagtiani of Railways 602-444 and entered the pre-quarterfinals as the league phase came to an end in Madras on Tuesday.

Agarwal had breaks of 70, 79 and 72 while his rival managed breaks of 98 and 69.

Jagtiani, who finished second in the group, also moved into the knockout phase.

Other qualifiers for the knockout phase are: Defending champion Ashok Chandilya, Rafath Habib (both Railways), Prem Prakash (TN), Rupesh Shah (Gujarat), Varun Taneja (Railways), Md Asim (WB), Alok Mumar (Pun), B Baskar (Kar), Antim Singh (Railways), Jai Ganesh (TN), Manoj Kothari (WB), Dharminder Lilly (Pun), Mukesh Rehani (Del) and Devendra Joshi (Mah).

Results of Tuesday's matches:
Group A: Mukesh Rehani (Del) bt A.B.Ashok Kumar (TN) 550-451
Group B: Md.Asim (WB) bt K K Kanna (JK) 623-298; Devendra Joshi (Mah) bt Md Asim (WB) 942-432; Group C: Prem Prakash (Tn) bt Omar Babara (Mah) 604-514; B Bhaskar (Kar) bt Omar Babara (Mah) 948-394.
Group D: Hari Singh (HP) bt V M Benny (Ker) 534-358
Group E: Rupesh Shah (Guj) bt Dhiwo Sitwala (Rly) 598-380; Dhiwo Sitwala (Rlys) bt Kamal Chawla (Mp) 851-279.
Group F: Arvind Savur (Kar) bt Nitin Kohli (UP) 652-440; Manoj Kothari (WB) bt Jaswinder Singh (Raj) 672-325; Manoj Kothari (WB) bt Arvind Savur (Kar) 772-397
Group G: Dharminder Lilly (Pun) bt Simhachalam (Rlys) 502-458; K D Cruz (Bh) bt A Haque (Ori) 479-348
Group H: I S Mallik (UP) bt Ammilal (Del) 569-399; Arun Agawal (Mah) bt Shyam Jagtiani (Rlys) 602-444.