India’s ace billiards players, reigning Asian Champion Dhruv Sitwala and Siddharth Parikh the current World No. three, will be the star attractions and frontrunners for the top honours in the P.J. Hindu Gymkhana Invitation Billiards Tournament 2016, scheduled to commence at the Gymkhana’s billiards hall from January 10 to 16, 2016.
Dhruv Sitwala
Siddharth Parikh
Besides Sitwala and Parikh,the other notable names that figure in the list of 37 players from Mumbai who are participating in the tournament, include current Australian Open bronze medalist Jaiveer Dhingra, former World billiards champion Ashok Shandilya and former World billiards runner-up Subhash Agrawal.
The 37 participants have been clubbed into 8 groups, with some groups consisting of five players and some groups of four players. The two top players from each group will qualify for the pre-quarter-finals (knockout round).
In the round-robin group stage, the matches will be played on time format of 90 minutes each. The knockout rounds will be played on the 150-up frames format. The pre-quarters and quarter-finals will be played on the best-of-5 frames and the semi-finals and final on the best-of-7 frames.
The top 4 seeded players as per National rankings: 1. Dhruv Sitwala, 2. Siddharth Parikh, 3. Ashok Shandilaya, 4. Jaiveer Dhingra.