The NSCI player took an early lead winning the first two frames 53-37, 73-56 but succumbed to his opponent's charge in the third. Shah scored a break of 76, taking the third frame 105-12. But Gulrajani came back strongly to take the fourth set 58-48 and the match.

Yesterday's giant-killer Vijay Mirani failed to rise upto the occassion losing 1-3 to Lionel D'Souza.

Nishant Dossa continued with his fine form scoring a comfortable 3-1 win over Sunil Gawde.

RESULTS (Qualifying Rounds)

Nikhil Ootam bt Farad Tengra 3-0 (77-49, 56-46, 61-11); A Sapru bt Prakash 3-1 (61-35, 62-12, 39-77, 62-14); Nishant Dossa bt Sunil Gawde 3-1 (64-49, 65-30, 35-60, 80-13); Lionel D'Souza bt Vijay Mirani 3-1 (35-49, 54-30, 49-56, 49-40); Rajat Taneja bt S Parekh 3-0 (102-29, 73-27, 66-25); Ritesh Shah btDhruv Sitwala 71-36, 73-24, 16-63, 65-34); Ramesh Sadragani bt Mahesh J 3-1 (68-48, 68-47, 33-52, 65-38); Sumer verma bt Cyrus Mistry 3-0 (72-33, 58-9, 55-53); Annuj Uppal bt Anthony Menezes 3-1 (62-53, 55-37, 50-68, 79-23); Viresh Prabhu bt Chintan Zaveri 3-2 (76-21, 38-58, 69-31, 46-53, 59-53); Rakesh Trivedi bt SC Mehta 3-0 (58-15, 66-5, 67-6); Manish Adnani bt H Nagi 3-1 (49-36, 48-33, 11-69, 61-23); Amit Sarin bt Ashish Sonak 3-0 (62-25, 56-21, 67-19); Sandeep Gulrajani bt Chandu Shah 3-1 (53-37, 73-56, 12-105, 58-48)