Indian trio in World Snooker quarters

NEW DELHI: The Indian trio of Rafath Habib, Siddhartha Rao and Aditya Mehta suffered their first loss in the World Snooker Team Championships at San Jose, USA, as they went down to Thailand in Group 'B' on Thursday.

The Indian 'B' team went down 4-5 against the Thai side that comprised 2004 IBSF World Under-21 championship finalist Kobkit Palajin, Phaithoon Phonbun and Atthasit Mahitthi in their last league engagement to finish second in their group.

The result, however, did not affect their passage to the quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, India 'A' defeated Sweden 7-2 to finish second in group 'A' while the Seniors' defeated Scotland 6-3 to top the group and qualify for the last eight stage.

Habib was the only Indian to score a win, defeating Mahitthi 60-57 63-16 42-64. He also managed a break of 34.

But Rao and Mehta could not stand up to the challenge of their more fancied opponents, Palajin and Phonbun respectively.

Rao, who scored a break of 55, was crushed by Palajin 74-54 19-81 4-76 and Mehta lost 10-65 30-88 57-14 to Phonbun.

In Group A, National champion Manan Chandra bounced back to defeat Jim Johansson 16-74 83-22 59-27 in the first match.

Pankaj Advani, however, continued with his impressive form to romp home 72-44 60-62 108-1 against Kevin Zarakani.

Yasin Merchant got the better of Mattias Enerdal scoring a victory by a margin of 58-42 99-10 79-41.