Fancied cueists qualify for quarter finals

Fancied cueists qualified to the quarter-finals of the Asian Snooker Selection Tournament for the forthcoming Asian Snooker Championship 2015 from the six pre-quarter final matches that were played at the Billiards and Snooker Association headquarters billiards table at the Sugathadasa Sports Hotel in Colombo yesterday.

The cueists to qualify were reigning national snooker champion Susantha Boteju of YMCA along with Shashika Perera (The Cue), M. Thanji (YMCA), Ryan Somaratna (OAC), M.F.M. Fazil (MICH) and Anil Rohana (AAC).

The seven-frame encounters saw Boteju recording a convincing 4-0 win over S.H.M. Aslam of MSC while Shashika continued his giant killing performance with a thrilling 4-3 win over M.M. Rikaz of MICH.

Another thrilling encounter saw Fazil pull off a stunning 4-3 win over the experienced M.M. Mubeen of Army. Thanji and Somaratna recorded 4-1 wins over Abdul Rahuman of POP and M. Shamil (MICH). The other two matches were in progress.

The quarter-finals are scheduled to be played today which would also be contested over seven frames. The semi-finals will be played over nine frames and the final over 11 frames.

The champion and runner up of the tournament will qualify to represent Sri Lanka at the Asian Snooker Championship which is scheduled to be held in Malaysia this year.