P.J. Hindu Gymkhana Invitation Billiards Tournament 2016
Jaiveer Dhingra, Aditya Agrawal and Hitesh Kotwani, all from Hindu Gymkhana without much difficulty won their respective last 16 round encounters to enter the quarter-final round of the Rs 2 lakh prize-money P.J. Hindu Gymkhana Invitation Billiards Tournament 2016, and played at the Hindu Gyamkhana billiards hall.
Jaiveer Dhingra
Bronze medal winner at the 2015 Australian Open Billiards last June, Dhingra with some decent play scored a thumping 3-0 win against Pune player Vignesh Sanghvi in a one-sided 150-up best-of-five frame encounter. Dhingra, who will be representing Maharashtra in the next week’s National Championship in Indore, created breaks of 55 & 52 in the first frame, 108 break in the second and 69 in the third to score a 152-56, 151-51, 151-117 victory.
His club mate Aditya Agrawal, who will also be participating in the National Champship representing Railways, outclassed Hasan Badami of Islam Gymkhana winning by a comfortable 3-0 margin with the frames scores reading 150-21, 150-31, 150-32). Aditya managed breaks of 67 in the second frame and 79 in the third to run away winner by a mile.
Meanwhile, Hitesh recovered well after his opponent Vishal Madan of Chembur Gymkhana started off positively by winning the first frame before losing his way. Hitesh made a strong fight and managed to pocket the next three frames to score a 3-1 win and advance to the next round. Hitesh created break of 66 and 76 in the second and third frames respectively to complete a deserving 137-150, 150-136, 150-11, 150-62 win.
Seasoned campaigners, Dhruv Sitwala, the Asian Billiards champ, Siddharth Parikh, the current World No. 3, both of Hindu Gymkhana; Ashok Shandilya, former World Billiards champion and Matunga Gymkhana players Arun Agrawal and V. Subramanian, also booked the place in the quarter-final round.
Results – pre-quarter-finals: Aditya Agrawal (PJHG) bt Hasan Badami (IG) 3-0 (150-21, 150(67)-31, 150(79)-32).
Dhurv Sitwala (PJHG) bt Vishal Gehani (PCL) 3-0 (150(65)-136, 150(99)-02, 153 (145)-14).
V. Subramanian (MG) bt Rohan Jambusaria (MCF) 3-1 (150-49, 151-135(61), 73-150(79), 150(104)-129).
Arun Agrawal (MG) bt Farhad Tengra (ECC) 3-2 (150(59,55)-106, 151-88, 141-152, 133-150, 152(86)-44).
Siddharth Parikh (PJHG) bt Amit Sapru (PCL) 3-0 (150(63)-99, 150(66)-41, 150(97,51)-26).
Ashok Shandilya (RLY) bt Subhash Agrawal (PJHG) 3-0 (152-41, 151-37, 152(69)-39).
Jaiveer Dhingra (PJHG) bt Vignesh Sanghvi (Pune) 3-0 (152(55,52)-56, 151(108)-51, 151(69)-117(91)).
Hitesh Kotwani (PJHG) bt Vishal Madan (CG) 3-1 (137-150(56), 150(66)-136, 150(76)-11, 150-62).
The quarter-final pairings:
Dhruv Sitwala (PJHG) vs V. Subramanian (MG).
Arun Agrawal (MG) vs Jaiveer Dhingra (PJHG).
Ashok Shandilya (RLY) vs Aditya Agrawal (PJHG).
Hitesh Kotwani (PJHG) vs Siddharth Parikh (PJHG).