As expected, defending champion Dhvaj Haria and runner-up Jagadesh B booked their pre-assigned berths in the junior billiards semi-finals of the Billiards and Snooker Nationals, here today.
Showing no sign of any pressure, young specialist of green baize Haria from Gujarat outplayed double title holoder of sub-junior category, Ashutosh Padshey of Odisha, 313-212 at the Shubham Banquets.
Tamil Nadu's Jagadesh scripted a thrilling 299-259 win against Maharashtra's Nikhil Pise in other quarterfinal of the day. ML Laxman of Karnataka defeated Rohit Yadav of Assam 516-212, where Ishpreet Chadha of Maharashtra knocked out his statemate Jaiveer Dhingra 543-266 to complete the semi-final line-up.
The junior boys' snooker event also witnessed some thrilling battles on day seven of the 21-day event.
Already in the news for his golden double, Ashutosh Padhey scored straight frames win against Sundar Raj of Tamil Nadu 3-0 to make it to the quarterfinals. But Haryan's Prateek Singhla was shocked by Gujarat's Dhvaj Haria 0-3.
