Sethi, the defending champion from Gujarat, compiled one century break (129) and also had runs of 53 and 50 in winning his first group A league match played over two hours.

The Ahmedabad-based Sethi, in his first major outing since earning the country a doubles gold and singles silver at the Bangkok Asian Games, however faced some resistance from the bespectacled Lily, who also was part of the Asian Games squad.

Lily had breaks of 69, 46 and 44 but these were simply inadequate against his masterly rival. His chances of making the knockout looked remote as he also lost his second match, 476-591 to Nitin Kohli of Uttar Pradesh.

Former champion Arvind Savur (Kar) made a winning start in Group H by beating Shakeel Ahmed (WB), 584-496, in GroupH. The Bangalore veteran, who is into coaching, rattled off a smooth break of 123 on his 28th visit. He also earned a walkover from G Lakra (J&K).

Prem Prakash (TN) caused a flutter by upsetting former champion Subhash Agrawal (Rlys) in a closely fought Group F clash, winning 602-528. The young cueist had 93 as his best break while Agrawal registered 99.

Other Results

B Bhaskar (Kar) bt Subhash Sood (Del) 646-309, Sardanand Sinha (Bih) bt K K Khanna (J&K) 426-404, M E Jokhi (Guj) bt Srinivas Rao (AP) 641-381, Mumtaz Ali (Bih) bt Ashok Sharma (Chd) 578-385.