As the main draw kicked off on an exciting opening day of close contests and big breaks, Shandilya ignored the loss of the first frame to surge to a 17-58, 68-16, 71-32, 55-16 win over Mumbai's Nikhil Ootam in Group 'B', that included significant breaks of 46 in the third and 43 in the fourth frames.

In a Group 'C' match between cautious cueists, Vatnani, who got off to a good start after winning the opening frame against Rafath Habib of Railways, surprisingly dropped the second.

But Vatnani recovered in time to snatch the next two and the match before 63-54, 31-73, 72-38, 80-26, relying on small but significant breaks that helped him stay ahead.

In contrast, twice Asian champion Yasin Merchant sounded an early warning to the rest of the elite field, as he began his campaign with a fluent 61-52, 57-56, 59-36 win over Hasan Badami, also in Group C, in the best-of-five frames contest.

Results: Group A: Kamal Chawla (Rlys) bt Shravan Mohta (Nagpur) 73(47)-30, 63-26, 75(71)-25; Devendra Joshi (PSPB) bt Neeraj Kumar (Bihar) 72(53)-30, 71(57)-38, 66-17.

Group B: Rupesh Shah (Guj) bt Faizal Khan (Rlys) 76(57)-7, 71-24, 65-23; Ashok Shandilya (Rlys) bt Nikhil Ootam (Mumbai) 17-58, 68-16, 71(46)-32, 55(43)-16.

Group C: Yasin Merchant (Mumbai) bt Hasan Badami (Mumbai) 61-52, 57-56, 59(46)-36; Lucky Vatnani (Hyd) bt Rafath Habib (Rlys) 63-54, 31-73, 72-38, 80-26.