World champion Rupesh Shah notched up two easy wins to put himself in a strong position for a knock-out berth as Indians began their campaign on a strong note on the first day of the 12th Asian English Billiards Championships here today.
Rupesh first thrashed Fan Kian Sang of Singapore 4-0 (101-07, 104(104)-28, 100-26, 101-00) in his first Group C match before defeating compatriot B Bhaskar also 4-0 (100-39, 101(99)-00, 100(83)-00, 100(96)-17). Bhaskar had beaten Nguyen Thanh Long of Vietnam 4-0 (101(83)-07, 101(101)-00, 101(57)-61(48), 100-41) in his first match.
Former Asian champion Alok Kumar also registered an important 4-2 win against Nay Thway Oo of Myanmar (100-16, 101(99)-61, 00-100(100), 17-102, 100-05, 105(95)-03).
Alok won first two games and had a break of 99 points in second game but lost the next two to level the score at 2-2. From then, Alok did not give any loose string to Nay Thway Oo and won the remaining two frames to seal the match 4-2. In the last game also, Alok had a break of 95 points.
Meanwhile, former world Champion Ashok Shandilya suffered a shock-defeat at the hands of Vietnam's Nguyen Thanh Binh. After losing the first game, Binh won the next two games to secure a 2-1 lead.
Ashok leveled the score 2-2 by winning the next game. Binh won another game and Ashok leveled again in same fashion but couldn't maintain the tempo in the decider where Binh scored a break of 51 points to win the match 4-3 (101(60)-86,66-100(86),29-105(68),101(49)-26,89(66)-102(86), 101(88)-25,07-100(51).
Ashok later beat Mohd Yousef of Pakistan 4-0 (102-65, 100-25, 101(84)-24, 101(70)-14).
