Chawla on course in Asian snooker

Kamal Chawla won both his matches while fellow Indians Brijesh Damani and Sourav Kothari had mixed bag of results on the first day of the Asian 6-Red Snooker Championship here.

Chawla outplayed Iran's Milad Valihesari 5-1 on Monday and then blanked Karin Fatima of Syria 5-0 in the preliminary league to stay firm on course for a spot in the knockouts.

Kothari lost a touch-and-go match to Ahmed Saif of Qatar 2-5 before edging past Hong Kong's Au Chi Wai 5-4 after trailing 2-4 and down 8-16 in the decider with two reds left. Kothari kept his cool to take the ninth frame to post his first win.

Damani lost both his matches as he went down 4-5 to Hong Kong's Fung Kwok Wai and 2-5 to Sharam Changezee (Pakistan). The Indian needs to win both his remaining league matches to keep alive his knockout berth hopes.