Laxman Rawat starts the campaign with century break

Railways cueist Laxman Rawat compiled a superb century break to start his campaign in the 1st RKG Pro Snooker Series finals on a rousing note at the National Sports Club of India here today.
Laxman fired in a break of 102 to clinch the round of 32 match against Telegana's I V Rajiv 5-3 in the best of nine-frame encounter to enter the last 16.
Also through to the pre-quarters was national no. 1 in 6-Red snooker, Varun Madan of Delhi, who recently won the Akshay Gohad memorial in Pune.
Madan edged out Railways' Malkeet Singh 5-4 after fighting back to win two frames on the trot when Malkeet led 4-3.

Kolkata leg runner-up Sourav Kothari of PSPB had no trouble in reaching pre quarters. He defeated Akshay Kumar of Uttar Pradesh quite comfortably. Sourav also scored two breaks of 52 and 54 points in first and fourth frame of the match.
Down 0-4, Rahul Sachdev of Maharashtra, put all his hard work to clinch 3 frames in a row but all went in vain as Shivam Arora of Bihar clinched the 8th frame to close the match proceedings 5-3. Shivam scored two breaks of 72 and 54 in the 3rd and 4th frames.

Petroleum Sports Promotion Board's Shahbaz Khan also entered the second round. He had to dig deep into his reserves after trailing his opponent Himanshu Jain of Telengana 1-2 before carving out a 5-4 win in the first round.

Results: Rafath Habib (RLY) beat Nitesh Madaan (RLY) 5-3 (50-63(52), 75-41, 59-73, 33-58, 67-32, 78(72)-2, 78(43)-12, 61-32); Varun Madan (DL) beat Malkeet Singh (RLY) 5-4 (51-54, 69-19, 13-123, 83-0, 57-72, 102-09, 29-86, 68-45, 72-39); Dharminder Lilly (PB) beat Aayush Kumar (PB) 5-2 (90(48)-1, 29-52, 55-44, 45-62, 64-15, 78-5, 86(54)-0); Sourav Kothari (PSPB) beat Akshay Kumar (UP) 5-2 (63(52)-25, 63-75, 67-48, 77(54)-2, 12-63, 67-47, 72-13); Shivam Arora (BH) beat Rahul Sachdev (MH) 5-3 (82-23, 58-49, 72(72)-19, 72(54)-49, 20-68, 28-66, 9-67, 57-30); Laxman Rawat (RLY) beat IV Rajiv (TL) 5-3 (60-15, 69-62, 33-65, 48-72, 44-52, 59-57, 52-19, 102(102)-4).
Shahbaaz Khan (PSPB) beat Himanshu Jain (TL) 5-4 (2-58, 53-74, 13-76(67), 77-21, 78-52, 79(51)-18, 72(63)-36, 12-64, 72-06); Faisal Khan (RLY) beat Ishpreet Chadha (MH) 5-2 (59-41,84(54)-00, 68-52, 67-01, 39-78(52), 39-74, 79(59)-09).