CCI Classic Billiards: Rupesh Shah, Dhvaj Haria storm into semifinals

Gujarat challengers Rupesh Shah and Dhvaj Haria stormed into the semifinals of the Cricket Club of India-organized Rs 10 lakh prize-money CCI Classic Invitation Billiards (time format) Championship 2023 by winning their respective quarterfinal matches here on Tuesday.

The former World Champion and India No. 4 Shah played steadily and with clever tactics stunned India No. 2 Dhruv Sitwala of Mumbai as he cruised to an 813-445 victory after enjoying a sizeable 417-245 points lead at the end of the first one-and-half hour session, quarterfinal match at the CCI Sir Wilson Jones billiards hall here on Tuesday afternoon.

On a side table, the left-handed Haria was high on confidence and played consistently to storm past an off-form Ishpreet Singh of Mumbai by recording an 1101-635 points margin of victory after racing to a 579-217 lead at the interval.

Shah, who had lost to Sitwala in the semifinals of the National billiards champions last December, played with plenty of determination. Although Sitwala started with a break of 101 points to grab the initiative as he marginally raced a 100-plus points lead, Shah came roaring back and carefully constructed a break of 373 points to turn things around and take complete control.

Thereafter, he played smartly to maintain the lead and with another run of 138 wrapped up the contest to book his place in the last four. Shah will meet the winner of the match between Singapore's Peter Gilchrist and India's ace cueist Pankaj Advani on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Haria showed excellent touch and compiled three double-century breaks of 241, 253 and 210 to outshine Ishpreet Singh, who is basically a snooker exponent but is capable of putting up a fight against the best in the business.

The lanky Gujarat player led from the start and did not look back as he waltzed to victory. Haria will clash with the winner of the match between Kolkata's Sourav Kothari and England's Rob Hall in Wednesday's semifinal.

Results:

Quarterfinals: Rupesh Shah bt Dhruv Sitwala 813[373, 138]-445[101, 74, 80].

Dhvaj Haria bt Ishpreet Singh 1101[241, 253, 210, 78]-635[75, 74].