Indian National and World billiards champion Dhruv Sitwala and Siddharth Parikh both played true to form and with steady consistent play comfortably won their quarter-final matches in the Senior Men’s billiards quarter-finals of the Malabar Hill Club Maharashtra State Billiards & Snooker Championships 2024, played at the Malabar Hill Club billiards hall on late Saturday evening.
The left-handed Sitwala failed to hit the high notes, and except for a couple of smaller efforts, it proved good enough to sideline Rohan Jambusaria marching to a 4-1 win in the 150-up best-of-7-frame contest. Jambusaria, too, was not at his best and was unable to put up a fight.
In contrast, Parikh looked more in control against teenager Shahyan Razmi, who won the opening frame, before cruising to a 4-1 win. Parikh after some decent runs and two successive efforts of 91 and 92 in the third and fourth frames signed off with a polished break of 124 to advance to the semi-finals.
In the most interesting match of the evening, seasoned pro Devendra Joshi went down fighting to Vishal Mandan 1-4 in five closely contested frames.
Rayaan Razmi, who had pocketed the snooker title, played with plenty of resilience and overcame Rishabh Thakkar by a fighting 4-3 frame scores.
Results – Senior billiards (quarter-finals): Dhruv Sitwala beat Rohan Jambusaria 4-1 (152(94,53)-6, 65-150(40), 150(58)-101, 150(41,72)-102(99), 150(69,46)-31);
Vishal Madan beat Devendra Joshi 4-1 (150(82)-106, 150-143, 136-150, 150-146, 150-100);
Rayaan Razmi beat Rishabh Thakkar 4-3 (2-150(148), 150(55)-128(76), 11-150, 150(124)-87, 150(97)-58, 44-150(48), 150-13);
Siddharth Parikh beat Shahyan Razmi 4-1 (146(63)-151(62*), 150(65,48)-54, 150(91)-21, 152(92)-70(59), 154(124)-30).
