16 March 2013: Habib, Kothari in pre-quarters of Snooker Masters North Zone

Former Asian Games gold-medalist, Rafath Habib and former National No.2 Sourav Kothari notched up comfortable straight-frame wins over their respective rivals to move into the pre-quarterfinals of the RKG Snooker Masters North Zone Championship, here today.

However, there was disappointment in store for the 2010 World Professional Billiards finalist, Dhruv Sitwala as he crashed out of the tournament after suffering reverses at the hands of Delhi's Nitesh Madan. PSPB's Sitwala was reduced to a mere spectator in his last-32 game as Madan came out all guns blazing to reign supreme on the green baize at the Megapool Snooker Academy in Dwarka.

Madan put on display fine potting skills to register an upset win over Sitwala and move into the pre-quarters of the championship. The Mumbai cueist tried his best to make a comeback into the game but it was not the case to be as Madan held his nerves to emerge victorious on the eighth day of the event.

Chennai's Habib produced an hour of sublime quality to crush Delhi's Anuj Uppal 3-0. Potting the ball all around the table with consummate ease, the current National 9Ball Pool Champion was simply unstoppable as he recorded one of his most emphatic victories in the domestic circuit (76-12 77-34 70-30).

Another notable performer on the cue sport circuit, Kothari showed his class when he beat Chandigarh's Sameer Bhalla in straight frames. The 2010 World Pro Billiards quarter-finalist, Kothari was on a roll, potting the ball all around the table skillfully to outclass Bhalla 81(76)-30 81-28 62-46. Kolkata's Kothari, en route to his win, constructed the tournament's highest break of 76 in the first frame of the match.

The match between PSPB's Rishabh Pandya and Railways' Pushpinder Singh drew loudest cheer from the audience as the two enthralled the spectators with their never-say-die attitude. Pandya started with a bang, winning the first two frames with consummate ease but Pushpinder stunned his opponent into silence when he constructed a break of 74 in the third frame to reduce the margin to 1-2. But Pushpinder's joy was short-lived as Pandya held his nerve and come up with a break of 67 to move into the next round of the championship.

In other major upset of the day, Delhi's Aman Goel defeated Railways' Manish Jain in straight frames. Both took the game into decider as the two found the going tough against each other. In the end, Goel walked away with the honours winning 3-2.

The tournament is a build-up to the RKG-Khar Gymkhana Snooker Masters 2013, India’s biggest Pro-Am Snooker tournament, from May 6 to 13 here. Eight-time world champion Pankaj Advani and Aditya Mehta will participate in the tournament. The event, sponsored by Delhi’s Ravindra Gupta, will boast of four top UK professionals and an equal number of Indian amateurs -- Advani, Mehta, Yasin Merchant and a wild card entrant. They will be joined by 16 qualifiers from across four venues in India -- Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Pune.

The prize money is the biggest offered in India with the winner’s purse being Rs.500,000 Lakh. Two professionals, Anthony Mcgill and Jamie Jones have confirmed their participation while Stephen Lee and Nigel Bond have expressed their desire to be a part of this tournament.

"This is the first time such a concept has been essayed in India and given the response from across India and the neighbouring countries, especially UAE and Bahrain, who have shown keen interest in participating in the qualifiers, we expect it to be a big success," said Gupta