Alok Kumar reaches Knock-out stage of World Snooker C`ship

Hyderabad: Indian cueist Alok Kumar registered his fourth win in as many group matches to reach the knock-out stage of the men`s event of the ONGC-IBSF World Snooker Championship here today. The 41-year-old Indian, who is yet to loose a frame in the four matches that he has played so far`, thrashed Ryan Somaratna of Sri Lanka 4-0 to reach the round of 64 at the International Convention Centre here. Ace Indian cueist Geet Sethi also shrugged off yesterday`s bad form and posted a comfortable win against Abdul Khamis of Qatar to keep his hopes alive for the top spot in his group in the Masters category. Among other Indian in fray, Kamal Chawla and Brijesh Damani exhibited much improved performance as they registered comfortable wins against Ajeya Prabhakar of USA and Andreas Ploner of Australia respectively. However, it was a disappoiting day for Aditya Mehta, who went down to Patrick Einsle of Germany. Down by 0-3, a visibly demoralised Aditya could not put up any fight as Einsle sealed the frame and match with a well crafted break of 52. In the ladies section, Vidya Pillai of India maintained her all-win record in her Group B league matches by beating compatriot Neeta Sanghvi 3-0. In the other matches, top seed Andrew Wagih Shoukry of Egypt beat compatriot and qualifier Islam El Fiky at 11-5, 11-8, 9-11, 11-3. Seventh seed Choong Kam Hing (Malaysia) defeated qualifier Vikas Jangra of India 11-4, 11-6, 12-10, Sandeep Jangra went down fighting to fifth seed Ahmed Hawas of Egypt At 11-8, 11-7, 9-11, 10-12, 8-11. Naresh Kumar rallied to defeat unseeded Jo Wen Ng 9-11, 11-13, 11-7, 11-2, 11-3 and James Snell (second seed — Eng) got past Ramit Tandon (Ind) 14-12, 11-6, 11-6. In the lone first round match in the Indian WISPA Challenger Series event, eighth seeded Indian Aparajitha Balamurukan defeated unseeded Maggy Marshall of Australia 11-5, 11-6, 1-11, 12-10 and set up a quarterfinal clash with top seeded Siti Munirah Jusoh of Malaysia. In the other quarterfinal matches, Zoe Petrovansky (4th seed - Aus) will take on Anaka Alankamony (6th - India), Carrie Hastings (Eng) plays Lauren Selby (3rd - Eng), while Anwesha Reddy (7th, India) will clash with second seeded Fiona Moverly of England. Bureau Report