Alok Kumar of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board kept his hopes of defending the snooker title alive, becoming the first player to make the second stage (knockout-32 main draw) of the 72nd BSNL National Billiards and Snooker Championship in Chennai on Saturday night.

On a hectic second day of round robin matches in the 16-groups, Geet Sethi (Gujarat) beat former national champion Siddarth Rao of Tamil Nadu 98-0, 93-14, 15-89, 19-95, 114-7.

Sethi showed his experience by winning the first frame to nil and then took the second at 93-14 (with a break of 42), but Rao, who has also been in good form this season, fought back to claim the next two at 89-15 and 95-19.

In the fifth and final frame, Rao had a golden opportunity after Sethi made a 42 in his first visit. Rao made a red and a pink but needed to go for a colour on a spread out table.

He had to release the red as black was hidden behind it and had no other chance of wriggling out of the situation.

Sethi cashed in on the chance and came up with a 72 break to win the match.

In the last visit, Sethi was on a song and even on long shots he was able to find the target. The manner in which he brought the cue ball to position for a blue for centre pocket on the right, was applauded by the spectators.

He succeeded five times with the pink and potted the black on seven occasions before winning a hard-fought battle.

Later, Aditya Goenka of Bengal joined Alok Kumar in the draw of 32 (knockout).

Following are the results of the senior snooker round Robin league (best of five frames) matches:

Group A: Aditya Goenka (Ben) bt Rakesh Roshan Pradhan (Ori) 81-44, 16-74, 43-64, 54-25, 78-25; Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Antim Singhi (Rlys) 64-38, 140-nil, 79-53; Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Aditya Goenka (Ben) 127-01, 42-52, 60-07, 130-01.

Group-B: Raunaq Vazirani (Guj) bt Umar Humayoon (J and K) 15-66, 53-59, 31-57, 77-57, 77-42; Devendra Joshi (PSPB) bt Prabath (Kar) 66-29, 72-34, 84-24.

Group-C: John Bosco (AP) bt Deepak (Har) 58-29, 67-07, 61-18, Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Kamal Chawla (Rlys) 84-10, 75-32, 62-05.

Group-D: Sumeet Talwar (Chd) bt Arun Madhu (Raj) 54-30, 76-37, 81-26; Aditya Mehta (Mah) bt Yahteedhar Raj  (TN) 60-44, 48-28, 61-17.

Group-E: Yasin Merchant (Mah) bt M C Mnoj (TN) 58-07, 79-13, 82-01; B V S Murthy (Kar) bt Nitish Prakash (UP) 74-20, 86-07, 60-18.

Group-F: Varun Kumar (TN) bt Joy Mehra (Pun) 91-21, 82-32, 59-38; Neeraj Kumar (Bih) bt Sarang Shroff (Mah) 66-36, 01-0115, 12076, 71-61, 63-47.

Group-G: B Bhaskar (Kar) bt Chetan (Har) 64-62, 77-nil, 77-18, 80-39; Manan Chandra (PSPB) bt Lucky Vatnani (AP) 85-28, 98-Nil, 75-14.

Group-H: Arvind Savur (Kar) bt Nitin Agarwal (MP) 67-13, 66-47, 33-70, 37-79, 71-42; Rupesh Shah (Guj) bt Prem Prakash (TN) 13-59, 17-52, 89-nil, 52-17, 69-48.

Group-I: Siddarth Anand (Del) bt Manoj Varma (Bih) 72-32, 83-nil, 58-44, K S Rao (AP) bt Dhruv Sitwala (PSPB) 70-33, 72-21, 75-39.

Group-J: Nadeem Ahmed (tn) bt Neeraj Khemka (Ben) 64-1, 8-61, 22,62, 64-1, Chirag Ramakrishnan (Mah) bt Shakeel  Ahmed (Ben) 53-46, 47-55, 63-45, 43-53, 72-35.

Group-K: Harish Gandhi (MP) bt Utup Thamas (Ker) 62-16, 76-8, 82-11; Sourav Kothari (PSPB) bt Shravan Mohta (Mah) 27-51, 71-35, 55-26, 81-18.

Group-L: S A Saleem (TN) bt Mohan George (Ker) 96-4, 77-60, 96-13; Sandeep Gulati (Del) bt Oomar Balsara (Mah) 80-58, 27-68, 68-45, 51-43.

Group-M: Sumesh Turki (J and K) bt Haque (Ori) 41-55, 53-13, 67-28, 64-28; Geet Sethi (Guj) bt Siddarth Rao (TN) 98-Nil, 93-14, 15-89, 19-95, 114-7.

Group-N: Faisal Khan (Del) bt Vinay Agarwal (UP) 77-55, 11-55, 72-57, 55-65, 66-38; Ashok Shandilya (Rlys) bt Siddarth Parekh (Rlys) 24-62, 78-15, 97-24, 90-23.

Group-O: S.Das (Ori) w/o from Simranjeet Singh (Raj) S Shankar Rao (AP) w/o from Simranjeet Singh (Raj); Rafat Habib (Rlys) bt S Das (Ori) 93-97, 66-8, 50-69, 41-8.

Group-P: Arpit Seth (Chd) bt A F Syed (TN) 51-42, 15-61, 66-65, 70-28, Arpit Seth (Chd) w/o from Shyamlal Sharma (Bih) Dharmender Lily (Pun) bt A F Syed (TN) 79-23, 70-48, 32-45, 105.23.