Railways cueist Rafath Habib scores easy win

Chennai-based seasoned Railways cueist Rafath Habib advanced to the next round in the Rs 1.89 lakh NSCI-BoI All India 9-Ball Open Pool tournament here today along with his teammates Faisal Khan and Siddharth Parikh.
Rafath trounced Mumbai's Mayank Bhavsar 7-1, while Khan and Parikh eked out narrow 7-6 victories. Khan outsmarted local qualifier Satbir Narula, while Parikh overcame another qualifier Arpit Shah to enter the round of 32.
Altamesh Saifi of Delhi, Brijesh Damani of Indian Oil, Chetan Chabbra of Hyderabad and local cueists Hitesh Kotwani and Shivam Arora of Khar Gymkhana also progressed to the next round.
Results (all from Mumbai unless stated otherwise): Faisal Khan (Rlys) bt Satbir Narula 7-6; Rafath Habib (Rlys) bt Mayank Bhavsar 7-1; Siddharth Parikh (Rlys) bt Arpit Shah 7-6; Altamesh Saifi (Delhi) bt Sagar Desai 7-3; Brijesh Damani (IOC) bt Nikhil Ghadge 7-2; Karan Chugh bt Meharzad Bhagwagar 7-4; Dev Dongre bt Alam Shaikh 7-5; Swaroop Pillai bt Kewal Mahadeshwar 7-4; Hitesh Kotwani bt Dhawal Karia 7-4; Chetan Chabbra (Hyderabad) bt Aditya Shah 7-4; Shivam Arora bt Rajwardhan Joshi 7-4; Malkeet Singh (Rlys) bt Karthik Subramanian 7-1.