Mike, Rupesh thru to Knockout; Must win situation for Geet to stay in the title race

Winning all three matches of the day, Mike Russell (England) and Rupesh Shah (India) reached the knockout stage from Group A. Russell made it comfortably by defeating Aidan Murray of Ireland 3-0 scoring break of 150 in 3rd Game; whereas Rupesh Shah went ahead of Geet Sethi (India) in an exciting match in the end.

Rupesh with breaks of 73 and 112 in first two games took a 2-0 lead, then Geet made a break of 70 to narrow the deficit and win the third game. Smelling the intentions of Geet, Rupesh played steadily and with the aid of a few small breaks, he finished the proceedings by winning 3-1.

Sourav Kothari outplayed Gary Oliver of New Zealand 3-0. Praput Chaithanasakun (Thailand) also defeated Phil Mumford of England 3-1.

The last match of the day created excitement as it reached the deciding game between Kyaw Oo (Myanmar) and Devendra Joshi (India). Despite making 75+ breaks in most of the games, Joshi lost the decider to Kyaw Oo 2-3. Losing the second game despite making a break of 125, Joshi charged himself up and won the next two games to level the match. In the decider, Kyaw Oo made 79 and a worthy 43 to win the mach 3-2.

With this the proceedings of day one ends. Tomorrow again sees four sessions to select last 16 for knock-outs.