From correspondents in Tamil Nadu, India, 10:31 PM IST

Former national champion Rupesh Shah notched back-to-back century breaks en route a 4-2 win against Rafath Habib to enter the quarter-finals of the Alliance Group-ASCA invitational snooker tournament here Friday.

Also making the round of eight were IBSF world champion Pankaj Advani, Alok Kumar, Devendra Joshi, Manan Chandra and Rishab Pandya.

Shah posted 113 (5 blacks, 3 pinks, 2 blues, 2 browns, 1 yellow and colours) and 118 (7 blacks, 3 pinks, 3 blues, 1 yellow and colours) in the fifth and sixth frames respectively, besides 80 in the second and 73 in the third. Habib, the Busan Asian Games gold medallist, replied in kind with runs of 45 in the first and 79 in the fourth.

Shah was undoubtedly the most impressive player on view in the day session, with his century breaks highlighting his brilliant positional play.

The 118 in particular required some astute planning with the reds split up in two bunches on the top and side cushions. Shah picked his shots well and there was no stopping him once he took a particularly difficult red with the Spider rest and the Half-butt cue.

Joshi, trailing 0-3 against junior National billiards champion Shahbaz Adil Khan, brought into play his vast experience and with his opponent committing errors under pressure, fought back to win 4-3 with a break of 71 in the fourth frame.

Alok Kumar scored a scratchy 4-3 win against his long-time rival Ashok Shandilya, who was clearly not in touch, in a mediocre encounter that had more misses than scores.

In the morning session, Advani wasted little time in getting past Faisal Khan 4-0, while junior National champion Shravan Mohta squandered a 3-0 lead to lose 3-4 to Pandya.

Greater deeds were expected of southpaw Mohta, but the strong start seemed to have lulled him into complacency as Pandya showed rare character to just hang in there.

Mohta had breaks of 68 (first) and 57 (third) before his game went to pieces to allow Pandya back into the match.

Pandya leveled at three-all and then followed a long drawn-out final frame that was marked by a lot of safety play.

Mohta turned back a 20-point deficit with some well-laid snookers and the two players went into the home stretch neck-and-neck.

The decisive moment came when Pandya sank a long blue followed by the pink in different visits to wrap up the marathon match that lasted all of three hours.

The results (pre-quarter-finals; best-of-seven frames):

Pankaj Advani bt Faisal Khan 4-0; Rishab Pandya bt Shravan Mohta 4-3; Rupesh Shah bt Rafath Habib 4-2; Alok Kumar bt Ashok Shandilya 4-3; Devendra Joshi bt Shahbaz Adil Khan 4-3; Manan Chandra bt MC Manoj 4-1.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)