New Delhi: Subodh Garg, despite being pushed to the wall, came back nicely to beat Akshay Sethi 3-2 (60-65, 54-33, 19-53, 80-52, 63-1 in the qualifying round of the SBA Open-cum-Invitational Snooker tournament at the Professional Billiards hall here this evening.

In another match of fine quality, which too went the full distant, Kartik Dhingra downed Sachin Khatri 3-2 (30-44, 69-37, 24-60, 49-27, 57-41) in the qualifying round while Harshit Arora defeated Amit Godara 57-78, 83-0, 57-09, 68-34 to move up.

Garg was trying to find his feel after the first frame and did manage to win the second. But a crucial mistake on his second visit to the table in the third frame cost him dear. He, however, put that bad shot behind to surge ahead nicely in the fourth. After restoring parity at 80-52 in a long game in which both players missed a few chances, Garg came into groove in the last frame. In more or less the same way, Kartik too had to bring out the best in him in the last frame to keep his qualification hopes alive.

Earlier, in a match of fluctuating fortunes, Abhay Sahni prevailed over Kunal Tyagi winning 26-56, 80-40, 26-59, 63-41, 85-41 over his rival.

The semifinal and final matches will be telecast live on Doordarshan on May 26.

Other qualifying results: Hitesh Sethi bt Dev 70-50, 72-75, 36-39, 29-61, 71-29, Ashmit Singh bt Kunal Lamba 77-57,60-34, 60-14, Nitesh Tyagi bt Avijit Oberoi 4-30, 58-0, 39-54, 67-31, Paras Gupta bt Shailabh Verma 47-25, 75-03, 49-18, Mohd. Arbaz bt Sunil Arora 73-31, 67-29, 41-28.