Indians make a sparkling start

Indian cueists made their presence felt on the opening day of the World 6-Red and Team Snooker Championship as Sourav Kothari and Kamal Chawla won their respective matches with ease here.

Fresh from his Asian Billiards title win, Kothari blanked Mohammed Abdel Moneyiam of Egypt 4-0 and also outplayed Kuwait’s Nasser Bomejdad 4-0 in the six-red individual event.

Chawla, who recently won bronze in Asian Snooker Championship, beat Ahmed Al Taweel of Iraq 4-0 while Dharminder Lilly and Faisal Khan also won their respective matches.

In the women's 6-red event, Umadevi and Vidya Pillai won their respective encounters, while Chitra Magimairaj had a mixed day with a win and a loss.

Results (Indians only): 6-red snooker (individual): Laxman Rawat bt Ehab Al Agamy (Egy) 4-2; Laxman Rawat bt Roman Lorinov (Rus) 4-0; Ketan Chawla bt Haythan Al Fayoumi (Egy) 4-2; Shivam Arora lt to Alex Borg (Malta) 1-4; Shivam Arora bt Zamarari Hassas (Afg) 4-1;

Sourav Kothari bt Mohd Abdel Moneyiam (Egy) 4-0; Sourav Kothari bt Nasser Bomejdad (Kuw) 4-0; Varun Madan bt Fawwaz Alhelo (Jordan) 4-0; Varun Madan bt Patryk Maslowski (Pol) 4-2; Kamal Chawla w/o Ahmed Al Taweel (Irq); Dharminder Lilly bt Alaa Elasaed (Egy) 4-1; Faisal Khan bt Ng Yam Shui (HK) 4-3; Rafath Habib lt Alal Minun Himad (Mor) 3-4; Rafath Habib bt Abdel Rahman Saif Al Shamshi (UAE) 4-1; Nadeem Azeez lt Amr Maged (Egy) 2-4; Nadeem Azeez lt Karim Abdel Meguid (Egy) 4-3.

Women 6-red: Vidya Pillai bt Makhalf Soukanya 3-0; Chitra Magimairaj bt Sue Martin (Aus) 3-0; Chitra M lt to Anastasia Nechaeva (Rus) 1-3; Amee Kamani bt Malgorzata-Sikarska 3-1; Neena Praveen bt Maha Helmy 3-0; Neena P lt Daria Sirotina (Rus) 1-3; R Umadevi Nagaraj bt Alexsandra Wojtecka (Pol) 3-0; Neeta Sanghvi bt Alexsandra W (Pol) 3-1.

Team 15-red snooker: Kamal Chawla/ Dharminder Lilly bt Latiff Wassiky/ Haythan el Fayouni (Egy) 4-1; Sourav Kothari/ Shivam Arora bt Park Hongpyo/ Hwany Chulho (Kor) 4-1; Faisal Khan/ Laxman Rawat bt Mohd Shehbab/ Mohd Al Joakar (UAE) 3-2; Varun Madan/ Ketan Chawla bt Chan Ka Kin/ Chau Hu Man (HK) 3-2; Pankaj Advani/ Brijesh Damani lt Jamie Clarke/ Gareth Allen (Wales) 3-2.

Women team 6-red: Vidya Pillai/ Amee Kamani lt Daria Sirotina/ Anasrasia Nechaeva (Rus) 3-2; Neena Praveen/ Indira Gowda lt Ng On Yee/ Ka Wai Wan (HK) 5-0; Chitra Magimairaj/ Neeta Sanghvi lt Jessica Woods/ Kathay Parashis (Aus) 2-3.