Number two seed Raymond Fung will have to do battle with the number four seed Laszlo Kovacs in the quarterfinals of the 2019 United States National Snooker Championship, as the pair came through with round of 16 victories at Q Ball Snooker & Pool in Houston, Texas.

As Kovacs failed to win Group D, he has had to take a different route through the draw which now pairs the seeded players both from New York City in the quarterfinals.

Kovacs produced respective breaks of 39 in frames one and two to take a 2-0 advantage over Arif Mahmood, but the player from Illinois hit back to win the next frame before Kovacs wrapped up the fourth frame to seal a 3-1 success.

Fung, who achieved his dream to become champion back in 2017, won a hard fought 3-0 encounter with Syed Hassan, with the first and third frames going close on the final colored balls.

In the other two remaining round of 16 matches of the 2pm session, the number three seed Ajeya Prabhakar also had to work hard for his 3-0 victory over Majid Randhawa.

The twice champion from California won three close frames to book his quarterfinal berth, which will see a repeat of his 2015 quarterfinal against Cheang Ciing Yoo — a match he narrowly won 4-3 after being 3-0 behind.

Yoo has never previously appeared in the semifinals of this Championship after competing in three previous quarterfinals, so his 3-1 round of 16 win over Thomas Tan will give him another opportunity to progress further than he has done before.

The round of 16 results and draw as follows:

Round of 16 (Best-of-5 frames)
Match ID	Player		Player
R16-1	Ahmed Aly Elsayed (New York) 1	3 - 0	Rushil Vig (California)
R16-2	Steven Wong (California)	3 - 2	Michael Monegato (Illinois)
R16-3	Mark White (Texas)	3 - 0	Amit Karki (California)
R16-4	Nitin Mehta (California)	3 - 1	Vaishal Talati (Illinois)
R16-5	Raymond Fung (New York) 2	3 - 0	Syed Hassan (Texas)
R16-6	Laszlo Kovacs (New York) 4	3 - 1	Arif Mahmood (Illinois)
R16-7	Ajeya Prabhakar (California) 3	3 - 0	Majid Randhawa (Louisiana)
R16-8	Cheang Ciing Yoo (Washington)	3 - 1	Thomas Tan (Illinois)

The quarterfinals, which will be contested over the best-of-7 frames, will commence at 6pm local time (4pm Pacific Time).

The quarterfinals draw as follows:

Quarterfinals (Best-of-7 frames)
Match ID	Player		Player
QF1	Ahmed Aly Elsayed (New York) 1	vs.	Steven Wong (California)
QF2	Mark White (Texas)	vs.	Nitin Mehta (California)
QF3	Raymond Fung (New York) 2	vs.	Laszlo Kovacs (New York) 4
QF4	Ajeya Prabhakar (California) 3	vs.	Cheang Ciing Yoo (Washington)

The winner of the Championship on Labor Day Monday evening will be crowned the 2019 United States National Snooker Champion, and alongside the runner-up will gain automatic selection to represent the United States in the following year's international snooker competition.