World Snooker: Alok Kumar in knock-out stage

Indian cueist Alok Kumar registered his fourth victory in as many group matches to reach the knock-out stage in the men's event of the ONGC-IBSF World Snooker Championship in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

The 41-year-old, who is yet to loose a frame in four matches played so far, thrashed Ryan Somaratna of Sri Lanka 4-0 to reach the round of 64 at the International Convention Centre.

Ace Indian cueist Geet Sethi also shrugged off the bad form of Tuesday and posted a comfortable victory over Abdul Khamis of Qatar to keep his hopes alive for the top spot in his group, in the Masters category.

Among other Indians in the fray, Kamal Chawla and Brijesh Damani exhibited a much-improved performance as they registered comfortable wins over Ajeya Prabhakar of the United States and Andreas Ploner of Australia respectively.

However, it was a disappointing day for Aditya Mehta, who went down to Patrick Einsle of Germany.

Down 0-3, a visibly demoralised Aditya could not put up a fight as Einsle sealed the frame and match with a well-crafted break of 52.

In the ladies section, Vidya Pillai of India maintained her all-win record in Group B league matches by beating compatriot Neeta Sanghvi 3-0.

Suniti Damani also posted her first win in the championship, defeating Nalha Sunni of Bahrain 3-0.

However, it was a bad day in office for ace cueist Chitra Magimairaj and Anuja Chandra as both were shown the door by Santhinee Jaisuekul of Thailand and Ng On Yee of Hong Kong respectively.

In the Masters category, former IBSF World snooker champion and winner of the Masters category in 2007, Darren Morgan of Wales brushed aside Australia's Paul Thomerson 3-0 with a nicely compiled break of 52 in the third frame.

Defending champion Dene O'Kane of New Zealand maintained his all-win record in his group by defeating Prasanna Madumage of Sri Lanka 3-0.