Indian cueists hog the limelight

Indian cuiests Alok Kumar, Devendra Joshi and Nalin Patel hogged the limelight by easily winning their league matches in the World Open billiards championship at the North Ormesby Institute in Middlesbrough on Monday.

Punjab based Alok Kumar led the Indian march with an impressive 4-1 victory over Robby Foldvari of Australia to head Group-F.

1995 World Open runner-up Devendra Joshi shocked world No 5 and local lad Chris Shutt 4-1 in a Group-D league match while world No 8 Nalin Patel shook off a sluggish start to pip Praprut Chaitanasakun of Thailand 4-2 and top Group-G.

The fourth Indian in action Dhruv Sitwal had the satisfaction of winning his first match in Group-H when he beat J Wahid of Sri Lanka 4-2. His compatriot 19-year-old Vishal Madan has an outside chance of qualifying for the last 16 stage along with Englishman Mike Russell from Group-A if he wins his last match against Moh Loon Hong of Malaysia on Wednesday.

Former World champion Geet Sethi has already booked his berth in the last 16 stage while his compatriot Pankaj Advani went down to Englishman David Causier 1-4 and bowed out of the championship.