New Delhi: The presence of Kamal Chawla, the bronze medal winner at the recently-concluded Asian Snooker Championships in Dubai, has given a fillip to the SBA Open-cum-Invitational Snooker Tournament, organized by the Delhi Billiards and Snoker Association here from May 18 to 26.

The Rs. 3.5 lakh tournament, to be held at the Professional Billiards Hall, Kirti Nagar, has received a record number of 134 entries which include the old warhorse Alok Kumar, winner of several national and Asian titles, Rafat Habib, Asian gold medallist, Rupesh Shah, the world billiards champions, Delhi’s Mannan Chndra and Sundeep Gualati. The winner of the tournament will carry home a prize purse of Rs. 1 lakh while the rest of the booty will be shared by all those who make it to the knockout stage.

In order to give the best of facilities to the participants, the DBSA has taken utmost care about the tables, conforming to international standards, the lights and umpiring. The chief referee for the tournament, M.K. Sharma, with expertise in conducting major tournaments is from Bengaluru. He will be assisted by qualified umpires with experience.

As for the format of play, all qualifying matches will be of best-of-five frames. Only ten players from the qualification rounds will join the 22 players who have been direct entry, based on their reputation and form. The 30 players will make the eight groups who play the league with top two from each group making it to the pre-quarterfinals.

In the knockout stage, the matches will get tougher with players having to play the best-of-seven frames while the semifinals and the final will be of best-of-nine frames, said Ravi Tandon, secretary of the Delhi Billiards and Snooker Association.

Talking on the huge response, Tandon said that the organizers had initially earmarked only eight days for the tournament, but had to increase it by a day to make it a nine-day event. “With more entries coming in, we couldn’t have completed the event in eight days with adequate rest for the players. That’s why we made it a nine-day affair,” he said.