In the other matches of the men's singles, Amal Ray beat Omar Faruq 6-3, 6-1 while Delwar Hossain fought hard to win against Asmat Ullah 6-1, 6-7, 6-4, also to reach the quarters.

NATIONAL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP
The fourteen top chess players of the country will take part in the Mercantile Bank 33rd National Chess Championship which begins tomorrow.

This was announced at a press conference held at the NSC conference room yesterday ahead of the competition. President of Bangladesh Chess Federation Rafiqul Islam was present on the occasion.

Three grandmasters, two international masters, five FIDE Masters and four rated players are taking part in this year's competition, which is a grandmaster event.

DIV 2 CRICKET
Young Cricketers and Gopibagh Friends won close encounters in their Kai-Altech Second Division Cricket League matches.

At the Dhaka University ground, Young Cricketers (224 all out in 42.1 overs) edged past Sinha Textiles Sporting Club (220 all out in 46.5 overs) by four runs. Faisal starred for the Mirpur-based team with a polished 56.

Gopibagh Friends (178-7 in 48.1 overs) beat big-spending Gulshan Youth (177 all out in 49.3 overs) by three wickets at the Jagannath Hall ground.

NSU INTRA-BATCH CRICKET
Shaon took three wickets as Batch 05 sneaked past Batch 06 by eight runs in the North South University Intra-Batch Cricket competition at the Banani WAPDA ground yesterday.

Batting first after being sent in, Batch 05 notched up the highest score of the tournament so far as they reached 273 for 6 in 35 overs in the small ground. In reply, Batch 06 were restricted to 265 for 8 in 35 overs.

Earlier, Fahad top scored for Batch 05 with 55 runs while Tushar took 2 for 33 for Batch 06.

It took a superb effort from Mushfiq of Batch 05 in the 33rd over, that of Shumit who was set on 22. Mushfiq dived a long way in the cover boundary to pluck out a brilliant catch. Shaon took three for 23.