Pune, Feb 1 (IANS) Punjab cueist Vivek Chopra became the second player to record a century as he posted a 100 clearance while defeating Rajat Khaneja of Chandigarh 3-2 in a Group F league match of the 78th Manisha-National snooker championship here Wednesday.
Much action was witnessed in lower groups that are likely to throw up some new faces in the knock-out round of 32-player draw.
It was Chopra’s second win in three matches that improved his chances of making through along with four-time champion Pankaj Advani, who won his third match on the trot.
Also scoring wins were Kamal Chawla, Sourav Kothari and qualifier Brijesh Damani, all ensuring their places in the knockout draw.
But there was a setback as No.2 seed Alok Kumar lost his third league match to Pulkit Thukral of Delhi in well-contested five frames.
Alok, the runner-up of the last Nationals in Chennai, led 2-1, but Thukral shot back and took the fourth 55-6. In the decider, both cueists played cautiously, collecting points only when there clear lines before Thukral took the frame and match on the higher colours.
The results (league):
Group A: Sunil Kumar (HP) bt Aneesh Saini (Har) 3-0; Yogesh Sharma (Mah) bt Sumesh Turki (J and K) 3-1; Aditya Mehta (PSPB) bt Sunil Kumar (HP) 3-0; Saini bt Turki 3-0; Sunil Kumar bt Sharma 3-1.
Group B: Bharat Sisodiya (MP) bt Pulkit Thukral (Del) 3-2; Peter Lalrintluanga (Miz) bt Lalsangzela (Miz) 3-1; Sisodiya bt Lalrintluanga 3-0; Thukral bt Alok Kumar (PSPB) 3-2; Thukral bt Lalsangzela 3-1.
Group C: Aamir Hussain (Ben) bt Sajan Bopanna (Kar) 3-2; Brijesh Damani (Ben) bt Bhadresh Panchal (Guj) 3-0; Neeraj Kumar (Rlys) bt Aamir Hussain (Ben) 3-0; Bopanna bt Panchal 3-2.
Group D: Sarang Shroff (Mah) bt K Venkatesham (Rlys) 3-2; M Yogesh Kumar (Kar) bt Pratik Jain (MP) 3-1; Venkatesham bt IH Manudev (Kar) 3-1.
Group E: Himanshu Jain (AP) bt Kunal Manchanda (Raj) 3-0; Anand Raghuvanshi (Mah) bt Anuj Sharma (Goa) 3-1; Kamal Chawla (Rlys) bt Jain 3-0; Manchanda bt Sharma 3-2.
Group F: Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Nikhil Ootam (Mah) 3-2; Vivek Chopra (Pun) bt Rajat Khaneja (Chd) 3-2; Ootam bt Dhawal Mackwana (Guj) 3-1.
Group G: Divya Sharma (Har) bt Jeet Kishore Das (Ori) 3-1; Dhruv Varma (Pun) bt Rishit Jain (Del) 3-1; Manan Chandra (PSPB) bt Sharma 3-1; Varma bt Jeet Kishore Das (Ori) 3-1.
Group H: Varun Madan (Del) bt Sukumar Barman (Asm) 3-0; Rafath Habib (Rlys) bt Ahsan Ul-Haq (Ori) 3-0; IV Rajeev (AP) bt Barman 3-0; Madan bt Haq 3-1.
Group I: Lucky Vatnani (AP) bt Mridul Das (Asm) 3-0; Rupesh Shah (PSPB) bt Amarnath Sharma (Meg) 3-0; J Varun Kumar (TN) bt Das 3-0.
Group J: Sumit Talwar (Chd) bt Vinayak Agarwal (UP) 3-1; AR Arjun (Kar) bt Deepak A (Kar) 3-1; Sourav Kothari (PSPB) bt Deepak 3-0; Kothari bt Arjun 3-1; Deepak bt Agarwal 3-1.
Group K: Vijay Nichani (TN) bt Rahul Bhargava (Raj) 3-0; Shivam Arora (Bih) bt Bhargava 3-0.
Group L: Durga Prasad (Rlys) bt Rupesh Chauhan (HP) 3-0; Devendra Joshi (PSPB) bt Shoaib Khan (Ben) 3-1; Akshay Kumar (UP) bt Chauhan 3-1.
Group M: Shankar Rao (AP) bt Valney Gomendis (Goa) 3-0; Shahbaaz Adil Khan (PSPB) bt Senthil (TN) 3-0; Kamal Rohmetra (J and K) bt Gomendis 3-0; Rao bt Senthil 3-1.
Group N: Rishabh Pandya (Mah) bt Imran Ganj (TN) 3-1; Sundeep Gulati (Del) bt Gunjan Patel (Guj) 3-1; Lalrina Renthlei (Miz) bt Ganj 3-0; Pandya bt Patel 3-0.
Group O: Siddharth Parikh (Mah) bt Rushab Jain (Mah) 3-1; Shyam Jagtiani (Rlys) bt Hasan Badami (Mah) 3-0; Parikh bt Dhvaj Haria (Guj) 3-0; Jagtiani (Ben) bt Jain 3-0.
Group P: R Girish (Rlys) bt Anupam Jha (Bih) 3-0; Rovin D’Souza (Mah) bt Faisal Khan (Rlys) 3-0; Manish Jain (Ben) bt Jha 3-0.
