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National championship: State’s u-18 No 1 cueist enters next round of billiards, his next best after snooker
Kreishh Gurbaxani from Mumbai, who represents Maharashtra, also faces an academic challenge as his Class 12 board exams are just over a month away.
PUNE After finishing in the top-8 at the World Snooker Federation (WSF) Junior Open in Malta on Thursday, Mumbai’s Kreishh Gurbaxani landed in India and reached Pune on Saturday, before playing and winning his sub-junior billiards quarter-final encounter against Priyansh Jain at the National Billiards and Snooker Championship at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana, on Sunday.
After a 32-hour long journey, Gurbaxani was able to breeze past his counterpart to confirm his presence in the semi-finals.
Into the final four, billiards is a cue-sport that Gurbaxani is not willing to take up professionally in the future.
For the current state u-18 No 1 and national No 2, playing billiards is all about table-time which he requires just before his preferred event, the -red snooker, which commences on Tuesday.
“I played in all three categories of billiards last year, but now, I am only playing in the under-18 category to get some table-time. I am not going to play billiards professionally, but snooker is my main event,” said Gurbaxani.
The teenager from Mumbai, who represents Maharashtra, also faces an academic challenge as his Class 12 board exams are just over a month away. The final of this month-long tournament is scheduled to be played on February 9, 2020, nine days before Gurbaxani has to appear for his first exam.
The 17-year-old is currently enrolled at the RD National College in Mumbai.
In the same tournament last year, Gurbaxani won the under-18 billiards and finished fourth in the under-21 category. In snooker, he was runner-up in both the categories.
He reached the final-32 in the senior category in both, snooker and billiards.
In under-18 and under-21 snooker, Gurbaxani is currently ranked number 2. Between 2016 and 2020, the 17-year-old has also been on numerous international tours.
In 2017, Gurbaxani finished third in the under-21 category of snooker at the Junior World Championship in China. Later that year, he finished fifth in the World U-16 Championship in Russia. After a brief sabbatical in 2018, Gurbaxani returned to the table and performed well in last year’s National Billiards and Snooker Championship. Training under India’s first professional snooker player, Yasin Merchant, Gurbaxani is aiming for the top spot in at least two categories in billiards and snooker this year.
The thought of a pending college project did not seem to hinder the youngster’s focus during his quarter-final match where he was able to sweep Priyansh Jain aside with a score of 310-147. Gurbaxani will now face Sumer Mago in the semi-final.
After the match
“It was challenging considering I just returned from the WSF Junior Open in Malta. In total, it was a 32-hour long journey that ended yesterday, and I had to recover from that and play today. I think I did quite well and I hope this form is consistent till the end. I am very excited and eagerly waiting for snooker to begin.”
- Kreishh Gurbaxani, snooker’s national junior No 2
All Maharashtra semi-final
After Gurbaxani’s success over West Bengal’s Priyansh Jain, Maharashtra’s Sumer Mago registered a 267-123 victory over Uttarakhand’s Akshat Gusain to set-up a semi-final clash with Gurbaxani. In the other two quarter-finals, Razmi brothers - Rayaan and Shahyaan emerged victorious over Ranveer Duggal, from Chandigarh, and Digvijay Kadian, from Haryana.
Rayaan earned a comfortable 295-174 victory over Duggal, while Shahyan edged Kadian 257-230. The Razmi brothers, who also hail from Maharashtra, will now come up against each other for a place in the final of the tournament, making it an all-Maharashtra affair in the semis.
Results:
Sub-Junior Billiards Quarter-Finals:
Kreishh Gurbaxani (Maharashtra) 310 bt Priyansh Jain (West Bengal) 147
Rayaan Razmi (Maharashtra) 295 bt Ranveer Duggal (Chandigarh) 174
Shahyan Razami (Maharashtra) 257 bt Digvijay Kadian (Haryana) 230
Sumer Mago (Maharashtra) 267 bt Akshat Gusain (Uttarakhand) 123
Junior Billiards First Qualifying Round:
Prakash (Tamil Nadu) 161 bt Hardik Kumar (Uttar Pradesh) 121
Umar Ul Islam (Jammu & Kashmir) 284 bt Shashwat (Tamil Nadu) 101
Tarandeep Singh (Uttar Pradesh) 260 bt Akash Balakrishna (Tamil Nadu ) 119
