Former World Champion and India No. 4 Rupesh Shah of Gujarat recovered from a hesitant start and rolled in a 399-point break to brush aside the challenge from Mumbai’s talented youngster Sumer Mago in a pre-quarter-final match of the Rs 10 lakh prize-money CCI Classic Invitation Billiards (time format) Championship 2023 here on Monday.
Shah set up a quarterfinal clash with Dhruv Sitwala while three other top contenders too made it to the last-eight stage in the event organized by the Cricket Club of India, at their Sir Wilson Jones Billiards Hall. India No. 2 Dhruv Sitwala of Mumbai got the better of his sparring partner and India No. 5 Siddharth Parikh clinched a close 559-455 point victory.
Later in the evening session, the overseas players, Peter Gilchrist of Singapore and Rob Hall of England, comfortably won their respective last 16 matches. The former world champion Gilchrist got the better of a spirited Mumbai cueist V. Subramanian 829-496, while Hall quelled seasoned campaigner from Mumbai Arun Agrawal, snatching a 689-513 victory. Hall produced breaks of 102, 75 and 105 to secure his win.
Meanwhile, IBSF World Champion Pankaj Advani, India’s most impressive player, was in full flow and constructed two massive breaks of 395 and 293 to sideline Mumbai’s Vishal Madan 1101-463, while Gujarat’s Dhvaj Haria defeated another seasoned cueist from Mumbai, Ashok Shandilya 633-561 to advance to the quarter-finals.
Earlier in the morning session, India No. 4 Shah asserted his dominance with a 155-point run to surge into the lead in the two-and-a-half-hour match. Shah 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.
On another table, Sitwala got the better of Siddharth Parikh by clinching a close 559-455 victory and set up a clash with Rupesh Shah. They had met in the National Championship semifinals last December with Sitwala advancing to the final.
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].
Peter Gilchrist bt V. Subramanian 829[74, 74, 85, 190]-496[97, 71].
Pankaj Advani bt Vishal Madan 1101[395, 293, 111, 75]-463[78, 109].
Dhvaj Haria Vs Ashok Shandilya 633[106, 81, 138, 118]-561[83, 84, 62].
Rob Hall bt Arun Agrawal 689[102, 75, 105]-513[82].