Asian Games billiards: Advani sneaks into semis, Sethi knocked out (Roundup)

GUANGZHOU - India had a successful day in cue sports with Pankaj Advani looking good for his title defence as he edged past Praput Chaithanasakun of Thailand 3-2 to enter the semi-finals of men’s english billiards competition at the Asian Games here Saturday.

The Indian women also made it to the quarter-finals of the 6-red snooker team event, beating Singapore 3-0. India also reached the quarter-finals of the men’s snooker team event, going past Afghanistan 3-2 in a tight finish.

Veteran Geet Sethi, however, suffered a shock defeat in the pre-quarterfinals of english billiards, losing to OO Nay Thway Oo of Myanmar 53-100, 87-100, 101-50, 79-100.

Advani first scored a thumping 101-27, 102-35, 100-26 victory over Indonesia Ricky Yang to march into the quarter finals in the morning and later overcame a stiff challenge from Praput to prevail 100-0, 101-45, 29-101, 0-101, 102-58 and make it to the last four where he faces Oo Kyaw Oo of Myanmar.

Before the tournament, Advani had compared the current format to an unpredictable T10 cricket match. And the topsy-turvey quarter-final show down against Praput displayed just that.

The Bangalore-based cueist comfortably won the first two frames before losing the next two in contrasting styles. The Indian could not manage any point in the fourth frame, losing 0-101. But the Doha 2006 champion proved his mettle in the deciding fifth frame and clinched the issue.

However, things did not go according to plan for the seasoned Sethi. The Indian lost a tight match and bowed out early in the competition.

Sethi had a bronze in the Doha edition four years ago.

India reached the quarter-finals of the men’s snooker team event beating Afghanistan 3-2 in a tight contest.

Aditya Snehal Mehta lost the first frame against Salih Mohammad Khan Mohammad 46-57.

Yasin Merchant got India on board by winning the next frame 68-16 against the opponent with the same name - Salih Mohammad Khan Mohammad.

Third was a doubles frame and India’s Yasin Merchant and Brijesh Damani thrashed the Mohammad duo, winning 62-0.

Aditya faltered once again in the fourth frame and the match was tied at 2-frames each.

Experienced Yasin came to India’s rescue in the deciding fifth frame as he blanked Salih Mohammad 80-0 and the team scraped though to the next round. The final score-line stood at 46-57, 68-16, 62-0, 36-82, 80-0.