Ahmed Aly Elsayed, the twice and defending United States National Snooker Champion, has survived a close quarterfinal tussle with the five-times former Champion, Tom Kollins, at the Prince Snooker Club in Brooklyn, New York.

Kollins took the early initiative when he secured the first frame on the final black ball, however the number one seeded player going into this Championship was soon back on level terms when he comprehensively won the second frame to tie the match at 1-1.

Kollins took the advantage once more when he won the third frame again on the final black ball to really put the pressure on the 31-year-old former Egyptian national player, but he hit back by securing the fourth frame to take the match into a final frame shoot-out.

With lots of tension in the air it was Aly however who managed to get over the finishing line by taking the fifth frame on the final colored balls, but all credit must go to Kollins, who, at 44 years his senior, competed exceptionally well against Aly and throughout this Championship.

The first semifinal will be an all Brooklyn affair as Aly will play Yan Y. Zhen, who was eliminated in the Round Of 16 last year but this time came through the quarterfinals with a closely contested 3-1 victory over Laszlo Kovacs.

The conqueror of Zhen in the Round Of 16 last year has for the first time sealed his berth in a United States National Snooker Championship semifinal after three successive quarterfinal appearances. Henry Wong defeated Chicago's Vaishal Talati 3-1 to finally make that elusive semifinal, and he will now face the tough task of the former Champion Ajeya Prabhakar, also runner-up in this Championship two years ago at the Prince Snooker Club, who secured a 3-0 quarterfinal win over Tim Lee.

The semifinal matches, which are to be contested over the best-of-seven frames, commence tomorrow at 11am local time (8am PT/USA).

The complete Quarterfinal results and Semifinals draw are as follows:

Quarterfinals (Best-of-5-frames)
Match ID	Player		Player
QF1	Ahmed Aly Elsayed (New York)	3 - 2	Tom Kollins (Illinois)
QF2	Yan Y. Zhen (New York)	3 - 1	Laszlo Kovacs (New York)
QF3	Ajeya Prabhakar (California)	3 - 0	Tim Lee (New York)
QF4	Henry Wong (New Jersey)	3 - 1	Vaishal Talati (Illinois)
Semifinals (Best-of-7-frames)
Match ID	Player		Player
SF1	Ahmed Aly Elsayed (New York)	vs.	Yan Y. Zhen (New York)
SF2	Ajeya Prabhakar (California)	vs.	Henry Wong (New Jersey)