Mumbai, April 17 (IANS) Former World Champion and India No. 4 Rupesh Shah of Gujarat, after a hesitant start, was in full flow and rolled in a break of 399 to brush aside the challenge from Mumbai’s talented youngster Sumer Mago in a pre-quarterfinal match of the Rs 10 lakh prize-money CCI Classic Invitation Billiards (time format) Championship 2023 here on Monday.
India No. 4 Shah asserted his dominance with a 155 run to forge into the lead in the two-and-a-half hour match organized by the Cricket Club of India at their Sir Wilson Jones billiards hall. Shah, after having settled down, launched into the marathon break which culminated when he missed a difficult red pot.
Shah, who had gained a sizeable lead then, had two more notable breaks of 83 and 102 to put the issue beyond the youngster storming to a 984-399 win. The current Maharashtra state junior number 1 billiards player Sumer who was unable to match his senior opponent played quite well and managed a solitary century break of 103 towards the end of the match.
On another table, India No. 2 Dhruv Sitwala of Mumbai got the better of his sparring partner and India No. 5 Siddharth Parikh as he clinched a close 559-455 victory and set a clash with Rupesh. The two had met in the National Championship semifinals last December with Sitwala advancing to the final.
Sitwala made his intentions clear from the outset as he produced two substantial breaks of 112 and 258 which gave him the advantage and put him on the road to victory. The India No. 5 Parikh was not at his usual best and his best efforts were 83 and 146.
In other matches, Ishpreet Singh of Mumbai, who has been in consistent form prevailed over Durga Prasad of Hyderabad 821-582, while current World Championship runner-up Sourav Kothari, who compiled a mammoth break of 351, shut the door on Loukic Pathare coasting to an 1179-388 victory.
Results:
Pre-quarterfinals: Rupesh Shah bt Sumer Mago 984[155, 399, 83, 102]-399[103].
Dhruv Sitwala Siddharth Parikh 558[112, 258]-455[83, 146].
Ishpreet Singh bt Durga Prasad 821[92, 86, 100]-582[84, 76, 76].
Sourav Kothari bt Loukic Pathare 1179[168, 170, 351, 108]-388[63, 63].
–IANS
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