Bhaskar qualifies despite loss

Karnataka’s B Bhaskar lost to fellow title contender Dhruv Sitwala of Delhi in his final group game but made the cut to the knockout stages of the 80th Senior National Billiards Championship here at the Jiwaji University hall on Wednesday.

Bhaskar, who emerged runner-up twice in the last four years, will take on PSPB’s Brijesh Damani in his pre-quarterfinal match on Thursday.

Results: Men: Billiards: Group A: Dhruv Sitwala (PSPB) beat B Bhaskar (Kar) 3-1.
Group B: Ashok Shandilya (Rly) bt Sourav Kothari (PSPB) 3-1; Dhvaj Haria (Guj) bt IH Manudev (Kar) 3-1; Farhad Tengda (Mah) bt Subrat Das (Ori) 3-1.

Group C: Manish Jain (Rly) bt Rajneesh Bansal (MP) 3-1; Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Nitesh Madan (Del) 3-2; R Bansal bt N Madan 3-2; Alok K bt M Jain 3-0; Aditya Agarwal (Rly) bt D Raj Kumar (Kar) 3-2.

Group D: Sarang Shroff (Mah) bt Mridul Das (Asm) 3-0; Rupesh Shah (PSPB) bt Malkeet Singh (UP) 3-0; IV Rajeev (AP) bt Nikhil Ghadge (Mah) 3-0; R Shah bt S Shroff 3-1; N Ghadge bt M Das 3-0; IV Rajeev bt Malkeet S 3-2.

Group E: Ishpreet Chadha (Mah) bt Manan Chandra (PSPB) 3-1; Siddharth Parikh (Rly) bt Sundeep Gulati (Del) 3-0; S Simhachalam (Rly) bt Gunjan Patel (Guj) 3-0; M Chandra bt Sundeep Gulati (Del) 3-2; S Parikh bt S Simhachalam 3-0; I Chadha bt G Patel 3-1.
Group F: Rafath Habib (Rly) bt Anshul Mittal (Har) 3-0; Arun Agrawal (Mah) bt Vijay Nichani (TN) 3-1; Brijesh Damani (PSPB) bt Shankar Rao (Rly) 3-1; B Damani bt A Agrawal 3-0; R Habib bt S Rao 3-0.

Group E: Durga Prasad (Rly) bt Mahesh Jagdale (Mah) 3-0; Prem Prakash (TN) bt Umar Humayun (J&K) 3-0; V Subramanian (Mah) bt Rahul Agarwal (MP) 3-2; M Jagdale bt R Agarwal 3-2; D Prasad bt U Humayun 3-0; P Prakash bt V Subramanian (Mah) 3-0.

Group H: Kunal Agarwal (Ori) bt K Venkatesham (Rly) 3-2; Devendra Joshi (PSPB) bt Nittin Kohli (UP) 3-0; Nitin Agarwal (MP) bt Jaiveer Dhingra (Mah) 3-2; K Venkatesham bt D Joshi 3-1; N Kohli (UP) bt N Agarwal 3-0; J Dhingra bt K Agarwal 3-2.