Former state champion Arun Agrawal of Matunga Gymkhana and youngster Rayaan Razmi of Elphinstone CC easily got through their first round ties in the Senior Billiards event of the BSAM Maharashtra State Senior Snooker & Billiards Selection (leg-2) Championship 2018 played at the Bombay Gymkhana on Monday.
The experienced Agrawal overcame Gulham Vahanvati of Bombay Gymkhana 3-1 in the best-of-five frame race-to-100 points, first round match. Rayaan brushed the challenge from Siddhesh Mulay of Chiplun by also recording a 3-1 victory to advance to the second round.
Agrawal was slow to get off the blocks and dropped the first frame. But, he quickly settled down and found his touch to take complete control and won comfortably won the second to level the frame scores. He then compiled two breaks of 56 and 45 in the third and signed off with a run of 45 in the third to clinch a 64-100, 100-44, 100-3 and 100-22 victory.
Rayaan showed good touch and was making quite good contact with balls and with tidy breaks of 32 and 38 in the third and fourth frames respectively coasted to a 100-57, 79-100, 100-40 and 100-75 win.
Results – Qualifying (round-1): Arun Agrawal (Matunga Gymkhana) beat Gulham Vahanvati (Bombay Gymkhana) 3-1 (64-100, 100-44, 100(56,45)-3, 100(45)-22);
Nikhil Saigal (Khar Gym) beat Sanjay Gamre (Bombay Gymkhana) 3-1 (100-97, 100-48, 69-100, 100-83);
Amit Sapru (Park Club) beat Joseph Menezes (Otters) 3-0 (100-89, 100-74, 100-40);
Rayaan Razmi (ECC) beat Siddhesh Mulay (Chiplun) 3-1 (100-57, 79-100, 100-40, 100-75);
Yash Rungta (Kandvali) beat Selven Samuel (Otters) 3-0 (100-61, 100-60, 100-23);