Top players for snooker tournament in Chennai

: Top cueists from across the country are battling for honours in the SVS Club Open Snooker Championship 2019 which got underway here Friday.

Leading players taking part include Yogesh Kumar, Anuj Uppal, Railways cueists Rafath Habib, Girish, Arvind Kumar, Pandurangaiah, Faisal Khan and Dilip Kumar, organisers said Thursday.

The tournament would be played on a 15 red snooker, knockout format featuring a total of 128 players and concludes on May 21, chief referee R B Ganesh said.

The winner of the championship, organised by Suguna Vilasa Sabha under the auspices of the Tamilnadu Billiards and Snooker Association, will receive Rs 60,000 and the runner-up Rs 30,000.

Till the round of 64, it would be best of 5 frames.

The round of 32 and pre-quarterfinals would be best of 7 frames.

The quarterfinals and the semifinals would be best of 9 frames. The final would be best of 11 frames.

Tamil Nadu would be represented by Prem Prakash, S A Saleem, Varun Kumar, Naveen, S Shrikrishna, R Loganathan, Prabhu and Vijay Nichani apart from women cueists-Neena Praveen, R Anupama and S Manasvini.

More than 30 players from New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana and Karnataka, would also be participating in the tournament.

In matches on the opening day, Venkateswara Rao of SVS rallied after losing the opening frame to beat Abdul Saif (Q-Tricks) 3-1 (15-38, 53-24, 52-42, 50-17).

Results: Venkateswara Rao (SVS) bt Abdul Saif (Q-Tricks) 3-1 (15-38, 53,24, 52-42, 50-17); Hrithick (Pot Black) bt Karthikeya Kumar (MRC) 3-2 (59-8, 19-63, 55-47, 29-44, 52-47); Ajees (Cue Zone) bt Ashant (SVS) 3-0 (65-2, 63-8, 68-13).

Vijay (Cue Zone) bt Rajesh (MRC) 3-2 (63-31, 46-59, 42-54, 70-36, 47-39); Sultan (Impact) bt Basheer (Q Ball City) 3-1 (53-45, 54-21, 19-57, 61-22).