Razmi shock for Damani, sets up clash with seasoned Advani in quarterfinals

Promising Rayaan Razmi of Maharashtra pulled off a shock win over the formidable Brijesh Damani of PSPB in the pre-quarterfinals of the senior men’s National Snooker Championship in Bahadurgarh, Haryana, on Friday.

The 23-year-old’s lopsided 5-0 win over last year’s finalist helped him set up a quarterfinal meeting with defending champion Pankaj Advani, who overcame fellow PSPB cueist Manan Chandra 5-2 in another last-16 encounter.

Razmi, a former junior National champion in both snooker and billiards, carried far too many guns for Damani. Fortunately for the Mumbai youngster, his seasoned rival had a poor day at the office. Barring the second frame of the best-of-nine frame clash, which was decided on the black, Razmi was largely untroubled.

The 23-year-old’s lopsided 5-0 win over last year’s finalist helped him set up a quarterfinal meeting with defending champion Pankaj Advani

Elsewhere, Ketan Chawla of Madhya Pradesh outplayed IH Manudev of Karnataka 5-2. In the quarters, Chawla takes on Dhvaj Haria, the reigning National 6-red snooker champion. Haria overcame E Pandurangaiah of Railways 5-3.

Formidable Aditya Mehta, Laxman Rawat, Sourav Kothari and Malkeet Singh were the others to make the last-eight stage.

Results (Pre-quarters): Ketan Chawla (MP) beat IH Manudev (Kar) 5-2 (58-56, 0-82 (68), 69-36, 34-73 (61), 81-10, 65-56 (56), 64-27); Rayaan Razmi (Mah) beatBrijesh Damani (PSPB) 5-0 (100-31, 61-54, 59-10, 88 (67) -0, 48-17); Pankaj Advani (PSPB) beat Manan Chandra (PSPB) 5-2 (81-19, 53-63, 64-26, 85-0, 77-34, 1-94 (94), 65-6); Malkeet Singh (RSPB) beat Nitin Sharma (Chg) 5-1 (90-6, 20-64, 66 (61) -26, 58-15, 96 (53) -28, 74-11). Laxman Rawat (PSPB) beat Paras Gupta (UP) 5-2 (58-30, 35-79, 71-40, 125 (84) -1, 83 (83) -47, 14-105 (51, 49), 74-0); Dhvaj Haria (PSPB) beat E Pandurangaiah (RSPB) 5-3 (71-17, 13-91 (87), 31-78 (66), 88 (88) -1, 80-16, 69-53, 58-66, 71-42); Aditya Mehta (PSPB) beat Md Hussain Khan (RSPB) 5-2 (94 (56) -18, 71-60, 74-33, 16-107, 8-112, 78-22, 75-62); Sourav Kothari (PSPB) beat S Shrikrishna (PSPB) 5-1 (77 (70) -23, 28-57, 61-5, 79 (64) -23, 74 (69) -12, 64-53).