Also in the fray are last edition's runner-up Shahbaaz Khan of PSPB, Faisal Khan of Railways, India junior No. 1 Laxman Rawat of Delhi, Maharashtra No. 1 Hasan Badami, Bombay Gymkhana winner Sourav Kothari and India No. 7 Manan Chandra, both of PSPB, India junior No. 2 and senior No. 5 Himanshu Jain of Hyderabad and national 6-Red champion Shivam Arora of Bihar.
The best-of-five-frame knockout qualifying rounds would be conducted from July 25 to August 4 to spot four qualifiers for the main draw of 24, which would include 16 elite cueists and four players from hosts Khar Gymkhana, a media release said today.
The round-robin main draw would have four groups of six players each and the top two from each group are to qualify for the knockout quarter-finals.
The roundrobin is to be played over best-of-seven frames, the quarter-finals and semi-finals over best-of-nine and the final over best-of-11 frames.
The tournament is to be sponsored by United Phosphorus.
