Former Asian champion Yasin Merchant of Maharashtra [ Images ] and Asian Games double gold medallist Ashok Shandilya were shocked by lesser known opponents in the quarter-finals of the all-India [ Images ] Invitation snooker tournament at the National Sports Club of India in Mumbai [ Images ] on Thursday.

Local lad and tenth seed Sarang Shroff crushed Merchant 5-1 while Rishabh Thukral of Delhi [ Images ] upset Shandilya of Railways by the same margin on way to the semi-finals.

In the third quarter-final, sixth seed Alok Kumar of Punjab [ Images ] proved too good for Kamal Chawla of Railways, winning 5-1, while ninth seed Devendra Joshi of Maharashtra drubbed his statemate Nikhil Ootam 5-2 to book the last semi-final berth.

Shroff, playing an intelligent game, had three good breaks to uspet Merchant. The NSCI cueist first came up with a 63 break in the third frame and then had a break of 57 and 38 in the fourth and fifth frames respectively to chalk out a 77-25, 65-40, 74-27, 42-64, 15-66, 73-53, 65-33 victory.

In the Thukral-Shandilya match, the former had a break of 51 in the second and another break of 65 in the sixth frame while Shandilya had a break of 66 in the fifth frame.

Last night, Ootam had caused the biggest upset of the tournament when he sent the youngest National champion Pankaj Advani [ Images ] packing in the pre-quarter-finals.

Results (quarter-finals):

Rushabh Thukral (Del) bt Ashok Shadilya (Rlys) 5-1 (71-38, 87-25, 68-31, 32-57, 72-66, 65-32); Alok KUmar (Pun) bt Kamal Chawla (Rlys) 5-1 (51-20, 74-35, 72-25, 19-55, 67-45, 51-39); Devendra Joshi (Mah) bt Nikhil Ootam (Mah) 5-2 (77-25, 65-40, 74-27, 42-64, 15-66, 73-53, 65-33); Sarang Shroff (Mah) bt Yasin Merchant (Mah) 5-1 (42-66, 73-66, 91-14, 64-14, 91-9, 60-2).