Pune, Feb 3  - Defending champion Aditya Mehta, along with Kamal Chawla, Brijesh Damani and Shahbaaz Khan entered the semi-finals of the 78th Manisha-National snooker championship, here Friday.

Mehta, who opened the defence of his title with a massive break of 134, needed no special efforts to subdue Siddharth Parikh 5-0 with breaks of 82 and 55 to set up a clash with former junior champion Shahbaaz Adil Khan who accounted for Andhra's Himanshu Jain 5-3.

In the previous round, Khan had authored the tournament's biggest upset when he beat former champion Pankaj Advani.

Chawla, who eliminated last year's runner-up Alok Kumar in the previous round, overcame qualifier Lucky Vatnani of Andhra 5-3 with a break of 86 in the seventh frame.

Chawla now meets Brijesh Damani of Bengal who scored an upset win over 2006 champion Manan Chandra 5-2.

Results: Quarter-finals: Aditya Mehta (PSPB) bt Siddharth Parikh (Rlys) 5-0; Shahbaaz Adil Khan (PSPB) bt Himanshu Jain (AP) 5-3; Brijesh Damani (Ben) bt Manan Chandra (PSPB) 5-2; Kamal Chawla (Rlys) bt Lucky Vatnani (AP)
5-3.

Pre-quarterfinals: Mehta bt Sarang Shroff (Mah) 4-0; Parikh bt Pulkit Thukral (Del) 4-1; Jain bt Shivam Arora (Bih) 4-3; Khan bt Pankaj Advani (PSPB) 4-2; Damani bt Vijay Nichani (TN) 4-1; Chandra bt Sourav Kothari (PSPB) 4-2; Vatnani bt IV Rajeev (AP) 4-1; Chawla bt Alok Kumar (PSPB) 4-3. (IANS)