Sitwala in World Billiards Championship quarters

PUNE - India’s Dhruv Sitwala entered the quarterfinals of the World Billiards Championship (Time Format) here Wednesday at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana.

Riding on a triple century break, Sitwala defeated former world champion Peter Gilchrist 1039-942. This was the key match of the day with Sitwala playing his third league match — he scored breaks of 331, 198, 162 and 146 and held on to the slender lead in a match where he had just 15 visits to the table.

Singapore-based Gilchrist put up a stiff fight and reeled out a break of 408 and 257 and he was on the table on his 16th visit when the clock signalled time out.

With two wins from Tuesday, and a match to go against Min Hu Baek, Gilchrist should make it as second player from the group to the quarterfinals.

Defending champion Pankaj Advani and eight-time world champion Geet Sethi also won their second league matches. Geet beat Tao Hoon Jung of Korea 1950-249 as he scored two five-tons and three centuries in compiling the maximum points during any three-hour match at the world championship.

Advani defeated Aidan Murray of Ireland 1175-598 with a double ton and two centuries, but Ashok Shandilya again lived dangerously before winning against Myanmarese Na Thway Oo 641-613.

Earlier in the day, Kyaw Oo, who once was Asian runner-up, defeated in-form Bhaskar Balachandra 1001-522 scoring three centuries and a double century. Devendra Joshi lost to Englishman Mike Russell who collated another seven-ton break when he produced 753.

Russell had a double ton worth 243 and three centuries as he won 1644-671 while Joshi could manage just one century.