Razmi sets baize on fire ahead of Gurbaxani clash; Giri and Kushwaha also advance

The promising Rayaan Razmi of India got the IBSF World Snooker Championships off to a cracker of a start with a brilliant century break on way to the third round at the Yeshwant Club in Indore on Friday.

The 24-year-old Mumbaikar, coming off a gold-medal show in billiards at the Commonwealth Cue Sports Championships last month, scored a lopsided 4-0 win over Nepal’s Wangchyu Tamang in the first event of the first stage.

Top cueists for IBSF World snooker in Indore, 16 Indians in the fray for first stage

The victory helped him set up a meeting with compatriot Kreishh Gurbaxani. The winner of the third-round match-up between the two will advance to the second stage. The loser will get two more chances to make the final stage.

After brushing aside UAE’s Abdulla Fahed Alnaimi 4-0 in his opening match, Razmi took a while to settle down against Tamang. Having pocketed the first two frames rather comfortably, the Indian potted a long red to the bottom-left pocket and came up with a brilliant break of 134 in the third.

Razmi, who was in the middle of a good run with consistent century breaks in practice leading up to the tournament, made a half-century break in the next frame to close out the match.

Kreishh Gurbaxani played a percentage game to outplay Sabin Tamang of Nepal 4-0

At the adjacent table, Gurbaxani played a percentage game to outplay Sabin Tamang of Nepal 4-0. For the Indian cueist, who spent two years on the snooker pro tour in England, it was all about getting used to the tables and the conditions. In his opening match, Gurbaxani had outclassed Iraq’s Ahmed Mustafa 4-0.

In another third-round meeting, Anuraag Giri takes on fellow Indian Piyush Kushwaha. Barring Paras Gupta, who went down 2-4 to Langyi Ryan Li in the first round, the other Indians had it easy.

Select results (Stage 1, Indians unless mentioned): Round 2: Rayaan Razmi beat Wangchyu Tamang (Nep) 4-0 (70-21, 74-5, 134 (134) -0, 80 (52) -18); Kreishh Gurbaxani beat Sabin Tamang (Nep) 4-0 (65-26, 80-1, 64-6, 61 (61) -53; Anuraag Giri beat Uzair Khan 4-3 (64-37, 26-69, 39-59, 50-77, 74-15, 63-26, 69-10); Piyush Kushwaha beat Jakub Chromy (Pol) 4-0 (65-43, 59-49, 72-45, 77-0); Aarav Sancheti beat Dong Zihao (Chn) 4-0.

Round 1: Kamal Chawla beat Altaf Hossan (Ban) 4-0; Laxman Rawat beat Ammar Taqi (Kuw) 4-0; Kanishk Jhanjaria beat Qasim Albalushi (Oman) 4-0; Langyi Ryan Li (HKC) beat Paras Gupta 4-2; S Shrikrishna beat Prathap Murugesu (SL) 4-0; Pushpender Singh beat Mohammad Al Amin (Ban) 4-0; Dhruv Patel beat Mostafa Dorgham (Egy) 4-2; Dhvajj Haria beat David Wright (Aus) 4-0; Digvijay Kadian beat Ziyad Alqabbani (KSA) 4-0; Ranveer Duggal beat Sami Al Hamrashdi (Oman) 4-2; Hrithik Jain beat Abdullah Alyousef (Kuw) 4-2.