In a major upset, young S Shrikrishna edged out fellow PSPB cueist and top seed Dhruv Sitwala in the quarterfinals of the Senior men’s billiards competition at the National championships in Bahadurgarh, Haryana, on Friday.
The 25-year-old, a former champion, played the big points well in a battle of equals to come through a humdinger (4-3) and set up a semifinal meeting with seasoned campaigner Siddharth Parikh of RSPB. Parikh outplayed Rishabh Thakkar of Maharashtra 4-1.
In the other semifinal, reigning champion Sourav Kothari goes up against young Rayaan Razmi. While Kothari defeated Brijesh Damani 4-2, Razmi prevailed by a similar margin over Dhvaj Haria.
After scoring a lopsided 3-0 win over veteran B Bhaskar in the quarters, the 25-year-old seemed to continue from where he left off, running up a quick 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven frame clash.
However, southpaw Sitwala, a two-time Asian champion, hit back with runs of 139 and 130 to draw level. He even took a 112-44 lead over his younger rival in the decider before losing position. Shrikrishna then knit together a gritty 106 unfinished break under pressure to go through to the last-four stage.
Sancheti makes it a double
Earlier in the morning, Aarav Sancheti’s dominance over Rahul Williams continued as the Pune youngster scored a nervy 320-316 win to pocket the sub-junior boys’ billiards title.
Trailing by about 30 points, Sancheti came good when it mattered to take a slander lead before being saved by the bell in the 90-minute title clash. This was his second title at the Nationals, and the 15-year-old is in with a chance to finish with a quadruple of trophies.
Results: Senior men billiards (quarterfinals): S Shrikrishna (PSPB) bt Dhriv Sitwala (PSPB) 4-3 (85 (77) -151 (97), 152-94 (75), 150 (140) -9, 150 (71) -109, 88-152 (139), 21-150 (130), 150 (106 unf.) -112 (93); Siddharth Parikh (RSPB) bt Rishabh Thakkar (Mah) 4-1 (151-83, 150-16, 126-150 (79), 150 (146) -20, 151 (78) -111); Sourav Kothari (PSPB) bt Brijesh Damani (PSPB) 4-2 (18-150 (97), 150-102, 150 (134) -83, 83-150, 150 (72) -49, 150 (145) -0); Rayaan Razmi (Mah) bt Dhvaj Haria (PSPB) 4-2 (152-134, 150 (108) -141, 0-150 (129), 151-56, 2-151 (121), 151-133 (72).
Pre-quarterfinals: Shrikrishna bt B Bhaskar (Kar) 3-0 (150 (91) -86, 151-137, 150 (66) -100); Sitwala bt Ketan Chawla (MP) 3-1 (144-151, 152 (93) -34, 150 (72) -38, 150-97).
Sub-junior boys: Billiards (final): Aarav Sancheti (Mah) bt Rahul Williams (TN) 320-316.
Snooker (semifinals): Aarav Sancheti (Mah) bt Rahul Williams (TN) 3-1 (61 (50) -70, 63-31, 59-34, 64-14); Owais Khan (MP) bt Nawang Khampa (HP) 3-2 (24-69, 48-27, 45-46, 78-49, 62-39). Quarterfinals: Sancheti bt Vaibhav Chadha (Tel) 3-1; Williams bt Mohammed Mustafa (Kar) 3-1; Khampa bt Jaikrishaanth (TN) 3-1; Owais bt Chaitanya Parashar (Raj) 3-1.
