Rakesh ousted, Siddharth survives scare

Second seed Rakesh Roshan Pradhan fell at first hurdle, while top seed Siddharth Sen survived a scare before reaching the quarterfinals of the 15th Orissa State Senior Snooker Championship at the Cuesport Academy in Bhubaneswar today. Amit Lath caused a major upset by defeating Rakesh by 3-2 frames. State junior champion Nishant Biswal stretched his pre-quarterfinal match against Siddharth to the distance before the latter’s vast experience helped him win by 3-2 frames. But fourth seed Ahsan-ul Haque and Satyadeep Das posted convincing victories in two other pre-quarterfinal matches of the day. Results: First round: Amit Lath bt Anubhav Agarwal 3-1 (58-33, 34-41, 60-3, 65-39): Saurya Prasad Patnaik bt Sarthak Das 3-0 (48-36, 45-34, 65-1). Pre-quarters: Satyadeep Das bt Satya Jyoti Mohanty 3-1 (33-60, 55-35, 76-47, 59-46): Ahsan-ul Haque bt Govind Sharma 3-0 (72-16, 77-16, 64-13): Amit Lath bt Rakesh Roshan Pradhan 3-2 (86-21, 54-45, 9-70, 9-61, 65-19). PHOTO: Siddharth Sen in action at the State Senior Snooker Championship in Bhubaneswar on August 5, 2009.