Merchant won both his league matches convincingly. His first victim today was qualifier Varun Taneja. It was Taneja who took the lead with a marginal 50-48 first frame win. But from thereon it was Merchant all the way as the snooker ace won 67-9, 83-15, 92-12, 73-16. It was a fine performance by Merchant especially in the third frame which he won with only three visits to the table with breaks of 41, 50 and one.

Later in the day, Merchant was in his dominant touch again as he trounced Amit Khansaheb by four frames. Breaks of 66 (in the first frame) and 45 ( second frame) saw Merchant win 82-34, 70-14, 102-1, 65-21.

Another Indian, Ashok Shandilya also looked in devastating form winning both his league matches. His first match against Nalin Patel was a particularly thrilling encounter with Shandilya rallyingfrom 1-3 down to win 4-3. Later Shandilya also beat M Shahab, the UAE No.2 by four frames to one. UAE's Mohd S Jokar also failed to rise to expectation going down 3-4 to India's Devendra Joshi.

It was a see-saw battle with Jokar taking the lead and Joshi catching up. A break of 56 in the fifth frame however saw Joshi take the lead for the first time in the match. But Jokar took the match into it's full quota of seven frames with a 81-41 win in the sixth. In the final it was Joshi who called the shots as he took the frame 63-28 and the match alongwith it.

RESULTS (league, Day One)

Group A: M Chandra bt Subhash Agarwal 4-2 (63-40, 16-49, 48-28, 65-7, 16-52, 74-0; Devendra Joshi bt Mohd Jokar 4-3 (15-62, 57-30, 56-62, 95-4, 71-12, 41-81, 63-28; Rupesh Shah bt M Chandra 4-1 (48-1, 79-13, 13-75, 65-55, 71-28; Mohd Jokar bt Subhash Agarwal 66-14, 47-62, 28-57, 69-29 79- 19, 68-42.

Group B: Ashok Shandilya bt Nalin Patel 4-3 (48-49, 57-68, 68-19, 18-54, 58-21, 83-8, 83-32; R Habib bt Siddharth Rao 4-1(67-30, 56-54, 65-18, 2-67, 56-31; Ashok Shadilya bt M Shahab 4-1 (66-24, 72-39, 49-56, 69-42, 54-45); R Habib bt Nalin Patel 4-2 (30-62, 29-62, 96-20, 67-1, 66 -56, 63-53.

Group C: Siddharth Anand bt Kamal Tulshan 4-2 (58-15, 68-47, 53-67, 65-27, 22-68, 61-56; Amit Saboo bt Siddharth Anand 4-0 (81-13, 86-51, 68-60).

Group D: Yasin Merchant bt Varun Taneja 4-1 (48-50, 67-9, 83-15, 92-12, 73-16); D Lily bt Geet Sethi 4-3 (31-77, 46-64, 61-24, 57-37, 58-14, 49-71, 63-32); Yasin Merchant bt Amit Khansaheb 4-0 (82-34, 70-14, 102-1, 65-21); Varun Taneja bt D Lily 6-84, 70-46, 66-38, 61-41, 83-19.