Sidharth Rao makes a good start

NEW DELHI, JAN 13: Sidharth Rao, who is making an appearance at the National snooker championships for the first time since 1996, the yea...

NEW DELHI, JAN 13: Sidharth Rao, who is making an appearance at the National snooker championships for the first time since 1996, the year he emerged as the champion, began in style with a comfortable 4-0 win over A Haque of Orissa here today. The highlight of the Tamil Nadu player’s victory, which followed a walkover in the morning as Parthiv Jhaveri played truant, was a fine break of 99 in his opening frame.

Rao, who missed the 1997 Nationals because of jaundice and then the last year’s event because of his Degree examinations, could well have gone past the century mark, but for a simple red miss. “Still I am happy with my form,” said Rao, who won the match 99-0, 58-14, 99-6, 67-31.

Defending champion and top seed Devendra Joshi scored his second successive win with a 4-2 verdict against Aditya Goenka of Rajasthan. Earlier on Tuesday, he beat S Shankar for his first win.

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The Asian Games billiards gold medallist Ashok Shandilya of Railways, won two matches in his group. He beat Parambir Singh of Meghalaya 4-0 in the morning and then an erratic Rupesh Shah by the same margin in the evening. Both Shandilya and Shah, essentially billiards players, missed a fair number of easy shots.

Shyam Jagtiani defeated young Omar Balsara 4-1 in the morning and then won 4-1 against Sanjay Bisht in the evening. Balsara beat Neeraj Kumar 4-1 in the evening, while S B Agarwal, who had breaks of 47 and 51 in the first and fourth frames, won 4-0 against Sanjeev Gupta.