Asian Games gold medalist Ashok Shandilya who had already qualified for the pre-quarters thrashed Shakil Ahmed (Bengal) 903-381 with the help of breaks of 178 and 101 in the last Group H match.

Uttar Pradesh's Nitin Kohli routed Sunil Sharda of Rajasthan 520-377 to book a berth in the last 16.

In the most exciting contest of the day, Mohd Asim surprised Shyam Jagtiani with a breaks of 130 and 102.

Meanwhile in the junior billiards nationals, local challenger Manan Chandra recorded his first win 942-921 over Omar Balsara (Maharashtra)

In a tantalizing game Manan and Balsara fought a ding dong battle in the last half hour of a three-hour struggle. Both were victims of nerves and missed easy sitters. However, Manan came out victor when he managed to over come the tension in the last minutes of the match.

Players tohave qualified for the quarter-finals
Group A: Geet Sethi (Guj), Nitin Kohli (UP); Group B: B Bhaskar (Kar), Rupesh Shah (Guj); Group C: Mohd Asim (Ben), Shyam Jagtiani (Rlys); Group D: Arun Agrawal (Mah), Harish Gandhi (MP); Group E: ME Joshi (Guj), Alok Kumar (Pun); Group F: Prem Prakash (TN), S Agrawal (Rlys); Group G: Devendra Joshi (Mah); Group H: Ashok Shandilya (Rlys), Arvind Savur (Kar).

In the junior's snooker semi-final league, Rishab Thukral of Delhi was extended to six frames by Ritesh Shah of Maharashtra. However Rishab won 4-2 in the best of seven frames with scores of 45-56, 55-0, 6-57, 54-17, 72-38 and 81-38.

Earlier in the last quarter final match of junior snooker event, Neeraj Kumar (Bih) bt Amit Sharma of Delhi 3-2, 65-18, 18-59, 37-76, 45-32 and 87-33, to enter the last four matches the semis.