Girish upsets Shrikrishna

Girish got the momentum going right from the start as he clinched the first frame easily. Shrikrishna hit back in the second with a break of 66 to level it at 1-1. Girish took the next two frames comfortably to lead by 3-1. Although Shrikrishna won the next frame, Girish made an excellent break of 60 in the sixth frame to win the match 4-2. 

“I am happy with the way I played today,” said Girish, who rejoined Southern Railway after serving Central Railway in Mumbai for a few years. 

Digvijay Kadian blanked former Asian gold medallist Manan Chandra 4-0 in his first match. Multiple times World champion Pankaj Advani comfortably won both his matches defeating Abhimanyu Gandhi and R Girish in his group. Dhruv Sitwala made the first maximum break of 75 in the tournament against D Rajkumar. 

Multiple times National champion Alok Kumar won both the matches he has played and led in his group. From Tamil Nadu, Vijay Nichani won all his three matches in the group and comfortably qualified for the knockout rounds. Pranit lost his first match against Dhruv Sitwala in the deciding frame. Local favourite and former Asian gold medallist Rafath Habib of RSPB edged past Vinayak Agarwal in the deciding frame 4-3 in his first match.

RESULTS: Dhruv Sitwala bt Pranit R 4 - 3 (29-21, 1437, 42-4, 0-36, 1-33, 38-34, 39-25); Dhruv Singh bt S.A. Saleem 4 - 1 (46-15, 34-23, 2-54, 47-30, 43-34); Vijay Nichani bt G. Prabhu 4 - 3 (7-39, 50-25, 15-44, 60-10, 26-40, 44-36, 40-19); Alok Kumar bt K Rakesh 4-1 (37-11, 53-17, 29-36, 45-0, 40-30); Vinayak Agarwal bt J. Varunkumar 4 - 2 (43-18, 42-15, 37-5, 16-44, 27-34, 47-32); Pankaj Advani bt Abhimanyu Gandhi 4 - 0 (34-30, 62 (53)-0, 42 (42)-7, 46-10); R. Girish bt S. Shrikrishna 4 - 2 (51-19, 0-66 (66), 37-28, 65-0, 14-27, 60 (60)-0); Ishpreet Sing Chadha bt Dhruv Sitwala 4 - 1 (42-19, 49-8, 48 (48)-0, 20-44, 38-14); Pranit R bt D. Rajkumar 4 - 1 (31-15, 36-10, 14-40, 36-11, 42-9); Anurag Giri bt Siddharth Parikh 4 - 0 (31-7, 41-0, 43-25, 44-36); Alok Kumar bt Daksh Reddy 4 - 0 (40-6, 55-6, 34-29, 29-16); Rafath Habib bt Vinayak Agarwal 4 - 3 (34-15, 8-37, 28-25, 40-55, 28-41, 38-13, 31-19); Aneesh Saini bt Pandurangaiah 4 - 0 (37-7, 40-2, 46-14, 42-13); Digvijay Kadian bt Manan Chandra 4 - 0 (33-13, 46-0, 41-16, 52-20); Vijay Nichani bt Mukund Bharadiya 4 - 3 (33-24, 42-31, 34-35, 13-42, 16-52, 61 (61)-0, 40-27); Pankaj Advani bt R Girish 4-2(32-39,42-16,44-0,23-48,45(45)-0).