DESPITE a loss in round four of the Southern Snooker League on March 3, Deepak J Ram maintains the lead in the competition.
The former national number one got 15 points for playing in the semi-finals and leads the Carz and Carz sponsored competition with a total of 79 points.
Round four was won by Jiten Prasad who had played in the two semi-finals and a quarter-final in the past three rounds respectively.
His win allows him to close the gap on Ram as he sits on second spot with 70 points in the competition which is played at Nausori Club.
Tournament co-ordinator Timoci Gaunavinaka said Prasad beat Ram in the semi-final to advance to the final.
"In the final, he (Prasad) beat former national Yogen Prasad," Gaunavinaka said.
"Prasad has been the most consistent player in the competition so far with two semi-finals, one quarter-final and one final," he said.
"He could be the one to go till the end with Ram in the competition."
With 21 rounds left to play, Gaunavinaka believes the two players could fight all the way till the end.
He said if others were to win a few consecutive rounds, they could be threats to Ram and Prasad.
"For winning a round, a player gets 30 points and for coming second, you get 22 points so if some different players were to reach the semi-finals or win the next few rounds, they could either join them at the top of the points table or overtake them," he said.
Meanwhile, two of the biggest upsets of the day saw Nausori Club's female player Reena Lata beating former national premier champion Rahil Prasad while another lady player Maraia Komai beat Fiji's 7th ranked super premier player Ravi Naidu on her first ever tournament.