Giri progresses in national snooker

Anurag Giri of Madhya Pradesh caused a major upset to make it to the main round of the Billiards and Snooker Nationals here Saturday.

Giri defeated former India No.2 Lucky Vatnani of Andhra Pradesh 3-2 at the Shubham Banquets.

Vatnani won first two frames but Giri didn't lose his focus and won last three frames.

Punjab's Sahil Nayyar defeated Michael Rebello of Karnataka 3-0 while Karnataka's Manudev, who scored a thrilling win over Madhya Pradesh's Priyank Jaiswal in qualifying earlier, showed no mercy this time as well, crushing him 3-2.

West Bengal's Manish Jain also stormed into the main draw defeating Praveen Rathi of Haryana 3-0. Joining him in the main draw was Sheetal Kumar (Karnataka), Anuj Uppal (Delhi), Subrat Das (Odisha), Malkeet Singh (Railways) and Mundir Sherazi (Karnataka).

Meanwhile in the main draw, Railways' Arvind Kumar also caused an upset when he defeated Delhi's Sundeep Gulati 3-2 to enter the next round.

In the other matches, Railways' Faisal Khan knocked out Bihar's Anupam Jha 3-0, Nitesh Madan (Railways) brushed aside Abhijoy Ghosh (Himachal Pradesh) 3-0, Rupesh Shah (PSPB) beat Manish Tank (Rajasthan) 3-1 and Prabhu (Tamil Nadu) defeated Sumesh Turki (Jammu and Kashmir) 3-2.

Results:

Qualifying round: Manish Jain bt Parveen Rathi 3-0, Sheetal Kumar bt Amit Gupta 3-0, Sahil Nayyar bt Michael Rebello 3-0, Anurag Giri bt Lucky Vatnani 3-2, I.H. Manudev bt Priyank Jaiswal 3-2, Anuj Uppal bt Manjot Singh 3-1, Subrat Das bt Deepak A. 3-1, Malkeet Singh bt Kankan Shamsi 3-1, Mundir Sherazi bt Vipin Sethi 3-1.

Main draw: Faisal Khan bt Anupam Jha 3-0, Nitesh Madan bt Abhijoy Ghosh 3-0, Rupesh Shah bt Manish Tank 3-1, Arvind Kumar bt Sundeep Gulati 3-2, Prabhu bt Sumesh Turki 3-2.