Rafath Habib of Railways and Himanshu Jain of Andhra Pradesh registered crucial wins to qualify for the snooker prequarter finals from Group D in the CCI Classic Billiards and Snooker Tournament here today.
Playing his sixth and concluding tie in the group, Habib, who suffered just a solitary loss to India No. 5 Faisal Khan, overcame Arvind Kumar 3-1 for his fifth win that helped him top the group.
Jain, who endured two losses including a 2-3 defeat to Kumar earlier where he fired a break of 102, beat Raj Khandwala of CCI 3-1 for his fourth win to finish second in the group.
Railway cueists Aditya Agrawal and Rovin D'Souza also recorded crucial wins in Group D to keep alive their hopes of entering the knock out. Agrawal beat D'Souza 3-1, while D'Souza shocked Faisal Khan in a 3-2 thriller.
India No. 2 and Asian Championship bronze medallist Kamal Chawla of Railways completed a clean sweep, winning all his six ties to top Group B. The Bhopal based cueist prevailed over Manan Chandra 3-2, winning the decider on the blue in his concluding tie.
Title contender Aditya Mehta qualified from Group A after recording his fourth win from five outings. Mehta endured a stiff challenge from Sourav Kothari before snatching a 3-2 win after trailing 0-1 and 1-2.
Delhi based Pushpender Singh of Railways also qualified from Group C where he registered an impressive four wins from five matches.
Results: Snooker Round Robin: A: Nikhil Ootam (CCI) bt Dilip Kumar (Rlys) 3-1; Aditya Mehta (PSPB) bt Sourav Kothari (PSPB) 3-2; Sourav Kothari bt Nikhil Ootam 3-0; Nikhil Ootam bt I.H. Manudev (Ktk) 3-0.
B: Kamal Chawla (Rlys) bt Laxman Rawat (PSPB) 3-1; Kamal Chawla bt Hasan Badami (CCI) 3-0; Nitesh Madan (Rlys) bt Malkeet Singh (CCI) 3-0; Kamal Chawla bt Manan Chandra (PSPB) 3-0.
C: Rupesh Shah (PSPB) bt Dharmender Lily (Pun) 3-2; Siddharth Parikh(Rlys) bt Kekoo Nicholson (CCI) 3-0; Pushpender Singh (Rlys) bt Nishant Dossa (CCI) 3-1; Sundeep Gulati (Del) bt Kekoo Nicholson 3-0; Rupesh Shah bt Nishant Dossa 3-0; Sundeep Gulati bt Siddharth Parikh 3-1.
D: Aditya Agrawal (Rlys) bt Rovin D'Souza (Rlys) 3-1; Rovin D'Souza bt Faisal Khan (Rlys) 3-2; Arvind Kumar (Rlys) bt Himanshu Jain (AP)3-2; Rafath Habib (Rlys) bt Arvind Kumar 3-1; Himanshu Jain bt Raj Khandwala (CCI) 3-1.
