Former national champion Sarang Shroff defeated Anand Raghuvanshi from Pune 3-0 in the pre-quarterfinals of the MHC-Maharashtra State Senior Snooker Selection tournament, hosted by Malabar Hill Club here on Tuesday.
Despite being a snooker player, Shroff had finished second in the billiards selection tournament that began before the snooker selections, thus qualifying for the nationals.
“It is difficult for most snooker players to adapt to billiards.
Fortunately for me the games were in the frame format rather than the time format, which means that the game ends when a player reaches the score of 150. I generally compete because they are held before the snooker selections and they provide good practice for me,” he said.
Shroff is planning to compete in the nationals through the qualifying rounds that are held for cueists who do not qualify from the two positions available from the state selections. Therefore, qualifying for the billiards national tournament directly is helpful.
He said, “I am going for the nationals, I will not have to go though the qualifiers in billiards. However in 1994 when I won the national snooker title I had gone through qualifiers as I had not participated in the state selections.”
The 42-year-old is on a comeback trail and restarted playing competitively in the sport two months ago after a gap of almost five years.
“I last played competitively at the Maharashtra selections in 2006, after which I had to concentrate on the family business. Since, that involved a lot of travel I had to hang up my sticks for a while,” said Shroff.
The comeback has proved to be a good one for Shroff as he won the O B Agarwal promotional series snooker tournament at the Wodehouse Gymkhana.
He said, “I defeated Nikhil Ootam in the finals of the tournament at Wodehouse Gymkhana, which a satisfying victory because I believe he is a good player.”
Results: Pre-quarterfinals: Raj Khandawala bt Kunal Rokade 3-2 (53-28 66-76 55-15 17-59 55-18); Jatinder Singh Dawar bt Mahesh Jagdale 3-2 (53-43 9-63 47-66 67-45 60-35); Manav Panchal bt Nishad Chougule 3-1 (27-64 69-40 52-29 65-27); Nikhil Ootam bt Rahul Narang 3-2 (52-57 56-20 80-15 53-60 61-50); Hitesh Kotwani bt V.Subramanian 3-2 (5-57 67-28 60-26 56-59 61-41); Sarang Shroff bt Anand Raghuvanshi 3-0 (62-27 49-31 79-62); Rovin D’Souza bt Yogesh Sharma 3-1 (67-15 62-33 53-57 60-42); Rishab Pandya bt Chandu Shah 3-0 (76-40 61-3 74-9)
Despite being a snooker player, Shroff had finished second in the billiards selection tournament that began before the snooker selections, thus qualifying for the nationals.
“It is difficult for most snooker players to adapt to billiards.
Fortunately for me the games were in the frame format rather than the time format, which means that the game ends when a player reaches the score of 150. I generally compete because they are held before the snooker selections and they provide good practice for me,” he said.
Shroff is planning to compete in the nationals through the qualifying rounds that are held for cueists who do not qualify from the two positions available from the state selections. Therefore, qualifying for the billiards national tournament directly is helpful.
He said, “I am going for the nationals, I will not have to go though the qualifiers in billiards. However in 1994 when I won the national snooker title I had gone through qualifiers as I had not participated in the state selections.”
The 42-year-old is on a comeback trail and restarted playing competitively in the sport two months ago after a gap of almost five years.
“I last played competitively at the Maharashtra selections in 2006, after which I had to concentrate on the family business. Since, that involved a lot of travel I had to hang up my sticks for a while,” said Shroff.
The comeback has proved to be a good one for Shroff as he won the O B Agarwal promotional series snooker tournament at the Wodehouse Gymkhana.
He said, “I defeated Nikhil Ootam in the finals of the tournament at Wodehouse Gymkhana, which a satisfying victory because I believe he is a good player.”
Results: Pre-quarterfinals: Raj Khandawala bt Kunal Rokade 3-2 (53-28 66-76 55-15 17-59 55-18); Jatinder Singh Dawar bt Mahesh Jagdale 3-2 (53-43 9-63 47-66 67-45 60-35); Manav Panchal bt Nishad Chougule 3-1 (27-64 69-40 52-29 65-27); Nikhil Ootam bt Rahul Narang 3-2 (52-57 56-20 80-15 53-60 61-50); Hitesh Kotwani bt V.Subramanian 3-2 (5-57 67-28 60-26 56-59 61-41); Sarang Shroff bt Anand Raghuvanshi 3-0 (62-27 49-31 79-62); Rovin D’Souza bt Yogesh Sharma 3-1 (67-15 62-33 53-57 60-42); Rishab Pandya bt Chandu Shah 3-0 (76-40 61-3 74-9)
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