Former Asian champion Yasin Merchant of Maharashtra and Asian Games double gold medallist Ashok Shandilya were shocked by lesser known opponents in the quarter-finals of the all-India Invitation snooker tournament at the National Sports Club of India in Mumbai on Thursday.
Local lad and tenth seed Sarang Shroff crushed Merchant 5-1 while Rishabh Thukral of Delhi upset Shandilya of Railways by the same margin on way to the semi-finals.
In the third quarter-final, sixth seed Alok Kumar of Punjab proved too good for Kamal Chawla of Railways, winning 5-1, while ninth seed Devendra Joshi of Maharashtra drubbed his statemate Nikhil Ootam 5-2 to book the last semi-final berth.
Shroff, playing an intelligent game, had three good breaks to uspet Merchant. The NSCI cueist first came up with a 63 break in the third frame and then had a break of 57 and 38 in the fourth and fifth frames respectively to chalk out a 77-25, 65-40, 74-27, 42-64, 15-66, 73-53, 65-33 victory.
In the Thukral-Shandilya match, the former had a break of 51 in the second and another break of 65 in the sixth frame while Shandilya had a break of 66 in the fifth frame.
Last night, Ootam had caused the biggest upset of the tournament when he sent the youngest National champion Pankaj Advani packing in the pre-quarter-finals.
Results (quarter-finals):
Rushabh Thukral (Del) bt Ashok Shadilya (Rlys) 5-1 (71-38, 87-25, 68-31, 32-57, 72-66, 65-32); Alok KUmar (Pun) bt Kamal Chawla (Rlys) 5-1 (51-20, 74-35, 72-25, 19-55, 67-45, 51-39); Devendra Joshi (Mah) bt Nikhil Ootam (Mah) 5-2 (77-25, 65-40, 74-27, 42-64, 15-66, 73-53, 65-33); Sarang Shroff (Mah) bt Yasin Merchant (Mah) 5-1 (42-66, 73-66, 91-14, 64-14, 91-9, 60-2).
