National Masters: Alok in semifinals

Alok Kumar overcame a determined Siddharth Rao in the quarterfinal of National Masters snooker championship.

Alok Kumar progressed to the semifinal with a 3-1 win.

Alok Kumar survived a tense quarterfinal against Siddharth Rao in the National Masters snooker championship here on Saturday.

Alok made the semifinals with a 3-1 (105-45, 0-72(68), 70-32, 100-72) win. Alok, after 1-1 in the first two frames, pocketed the third but encountered a determined Siddharth in the fourth frame. Siddharth had Alok in a spot of bother early on in the frame. Trying to get past a defensive ploy, Alok, the PSPB player gave away four fouls.

Siddharth kept his nose well ahead but Alok soon pulled away into a big lead.

It was then just a matter of time for him to close out the match. In another semifinal, Chirag Ramakrishnan sailed past Joy Mehra 3-0 (48-35, 54-42, 63-25).

Results: Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Siddharth Rao (TN) 3-1 (105-45, 0-72(68), 70-32; 100-72); Chirag Ramakrishnan (Mah) bt  Joy Mehra (Pun) 3-0 (48-35, 54-42, 63-25).
 

Pre-quarterfinals: Alok bt N Srinivas (TN) 3-0; Siddharth bt Thirumurugan (TN) 3-1; D. Bhuvaneswaran (TN) bt S.A Saleem (TN) 3-0; Chirag  bt Prem Prakash (TN) 3-1; Joy Mehra bt Nadeem Ahmed (TN) 3-1; Rafath Habib (RSPB) bt Dhruv Agarwal (WB) 3-0; Shyam Jagtiani (WB) bt Rajesh Tulshian 3-1; Manudev (Kar) bt L. Nagaraj (Kar) 3-2.