Indian’s Yasin Merchant and Alok Kumar made winning starts at the 23rd Asian Snooker Championship here.
After outclassing Pakistan’s Vishan Gir 4-2, Merchant got a walkover from Reenat William of Iraq on Wednesday.
Kumar had a win over Shimon Tauchi of Japan swamping him in four straight frames. The host players had mixed fortunes with Gir losing both his opening round games to Merchant and Habib Sahbah of Bahrain.
National champion Naveen Perwani kept the Pakistan flag up with wins over Susthana Bhotejo of Sri Lanka and Jung Tae Hoon of Korea.
Pakistan’s title hope, Saleh Mohammad, also suffered an early setback when he lost to young Liu Chuang of China 1-4.
Saleh and Mohammad Yousuf remain Pakistan’s hopes of winning the Asian Championship which is being hosted for the fourth time by Pakistan since 1991. A total of 32 players from 15 countries are taking part.