World billiards champion Dhruv Sitwala and Rayaan Razmi in contrasting fashion won their respective semi-final matches in the Senior Men’s billiards competition of the Malabar Hill Club Maharashtra State Billiards & Snooker Championships 2024, played at the Malabar Hill Club billiards hall late Sunday evening.
While, the left-handed Sitwala, who is also the Indian National billiards champion dropped just one frame (first frame) before coasting to a 4-1 victory against Vishal Madan in the 150-up best-of-7-frame encounter.
In the second semi-final, Razmi who had earlier won the Senior snooker title, ground out a fighting 4-3 win against the highly experienced Siddharth Parikh to set up a title clash with Sitwala.
Sitwala constructed two successive century breaks to win the 110 (2nd frame) and 104 (4th) and a couple of substantial runs and completed a 149-150, 151-28, 151-26, 151-16, and 150-127 frame scores success. Madan started with breaks of 68 and 61 in winning the opening frame.
The second semi-final witnessed a fascinating battle for supremacy before the younger and composed Razmi won the deciding seventh frame to clinch a satisfying 152-45, 23-150, 20-152, 150-71, 151-46, 6-150, and 150-73. Both Razmi and Parikh produced two century break each and multiple notable efforts in the match.
Razmi started with a 147 in the first frame and followed it with a 119 in the fifth, while Parikh cracked an unfinished152 break the best in the tournament and a 113 in the sixth to level the match scores.
Results – Senior billiards (semi-finals): Dhruv Sitwala beat Vishal Madan 4-1 (149-150(68,61), 151(110)-28, 151(90)-26, 151(104)-16, 150-127).
Rayaan Razmi beat Siddharth Parikh 4-3 (152(147)-45, 23-150(74), 20-152(152), 150(59,46)-71, 151(119)-46, 6-150(113), 150(56)-73).
