Advani, Sethi in semifinals of World Billiards Championship

PUNE - Defending champion Pankaj Advani of India survived a scare against Myanmar’s Kyaw Oo before winning in six frames to make it to the semifinals of the Time Format event of the IBSF World Billiards Championship at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana here Sunday.

Also reaching the semifinals was Geet Sethi, who scored an emphatic 4-2 win over compatriot Dhruv Sitwala.

Advani began well against Kyaw by making two century breaks to race to 2-0 lead before the Myanmar cueist leveled the frames with some gutsy top table play. The fifth frame too went tight and when Kyaw missed an easy chance to carry his break of 113, Advani returned to the table and cleaned up the required points.

In the sixth frame Advani allowed no such concession and scored 152-5 win with a massive break of 110.

Advani will now meet Singapore’s Peter Gilchrist, who tamed India’s Rupesh Shah 4-0.

In the top half of the draw, Mike Russell continued with his awe-inspiring performance defeated Bhaskar Balachandra 4-1 to be the first one to move into the semis, where he will meet Sethi.

Earlier in the day, Advani had led five Indians into the quarterfinals. He put out Gary Oliver of New Zealand in five frames in the best-of-seven pre-quarterfinal match.

The Bangalore cueist, who won both the Points and Timed Format world championship titles at home in 2008, showed no signs of losing his grip over the match. He eked out the next four frames 151-63, 150-73, 152-5, 150-36 to set up the quarterfinal against Kyaw Oo, a former Asian runner-up in the Points Format.

Aiming for his first world title in Points Format, Sethi, who sneaked into the pre-quarters on the back of back-to-back wins Saturday, produced yet another classy show, allowing no room to dangerous Thai cueist, Praprut Chaithanasakun in straight frames.

Other Indians who made through to the quarterfinals were Rupesh and Bhaskar Balachandra, both winning in all-Indian contests. While Rupesh needed five frames to put out Sourav Kothari, Bhaskar virtually came back from dead against former champion Ashok Shandilya

Semifinal line-up: Pankaj Advani (Ind) v Peter Gilchrist (Sin); Mike Russell (Eng) v Geet Sethi (Ind).

Results:

Quarterfinals:

Pankaj Advani (Ind) bt Kyaw Oo (Mya) 4-2 (150 (100)-18, 152 (114)-80, 42-151 (85), 117 (95)-151 (89), 150 (82)-118 (113), 152 (110)-5).

Peter Gilchrist (Sin) bt Rupesh Shah (Ind) 4-0 (151 (100)-99, 152 (101)-52, 152-56, 150-121).

Geet Sethi (Ind) bt Dhruv Sitwala (Ind) 4-2 (152 (106)-24, 150 (95)-4, 22-152 (85), 151 (78)-146 (91), 97 (88)-152 (92), 150 (141)-89 (85)).

Mike Russell (Eng) bt Bhaskar Balachandra 4-1 (151 (76, 75)-23, 100-150 (119), 150-85, 150 (148)-12, 150 (121)-141 (120)).

Pre-quarterfinals:

Pankaj Advani (Ind) bt Gary Oliver (Nzl) 4-1 (128-153, 151-63, 150-73, 152-5, 150-36), Kyaw Oo (Mya) bt Nay Thway Oo (Mya) 4-1 (152-88, 150-45, 151-110, 73-151, 151-44), Rupesh Shah (Ind) bt Sourav Kothari (Ind) 4-1 (79-150, 153-9, 150-9, 150-143, 150-109), Peter Gilchrist (Sin) bt Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (Tha) 4-0 (150-0, 150-21, 152-0, 150-93), Geet Sethi (Ind) bt Praprut Chaithanasakun (Tha) 4-0 (151-47, 150-29, 151-128, 150-137), Dhruv Sitwala (Ind) bt Alok Kumar (Ind) 4-3 (15-153, 150-0, 151-47, 150-4, 139-150, 33-150, 150-110), Bhaskar Balachandra (Ind) bt Ashok Shandilya (Ind) 4-3 (120-150, 0-151, 150-147, 133-151, 150-12, 150-42, 152-4), Mike Russell (Eng) bt Chul Ho Hwang (Kor) 4-0 (151-0, 150-23, 150-25, 150-6).