Pankaj Advani overcame a battling Dhruv Sitwala to enter the semifinal of the IBSF World billiards (points format) championship at the KSBA here.
Advani began with a bang, reeling off an unfinished 150 in the very first frame. The home favourite notched up a 152 in the second, while Sitwala was yet to score a single point. Sitwala got on the scoreboard soon after, but only just. The third frame, which started with a long period of safety exchanges, went 151-5 to Advani. It looked like an early finish was on the cards.
With his back to the wall, Sitwala came out fighting. He won a scrappy fourth frame, and unleashed a stellar 151 in the fifth to reduce the deficit to 2-3. Sitwala’s comeback hopes hit a wall at this point, as Advani asserted his might by closing out the best-of-nine frame outing 5-2.
Advani, who had lost in the last-eight stage in the long-up event earlier, stated that he was at his best. “Sitwala played out of his skin, so I had to fight hard. He was a worthy opponent. He’s my good friend - it is never easy when we have to play against each other," he said.
"I don't want to look too far ahead. I need to get sharper to do well in the semifinal. I will take it frame by frame," Advani added.
In another quarterfinal fixture, Myanmar's Aung Htay recorded a facile victory over India’s Alok Kumar. Htay and Alok split the first two frames, before the former raced ahead to post a 5-1 win. Htay will face Advani in the semifinal, which will be held on Monday morning.
Peter Gilchrist, the long-up champion, punished an error-prone Sourav Kothari. Gilchrist goes up against Dhvaj Haria, who edged out Chit Ko Ko in a tense affair.
The results (Indians unless mentioned):
Quarterfinals: Pankaj Advani bt Dhruv Sitwala 150-0, 152-0, 151-5, 89-150, 107-151, 151-69, 150-128; Aung Htay (Myn) bt Alok Kumar 152-65, 128-150, 151-132, 151-105, 152-91, 150-91; Peter Gilchrist (Sing) bt Sourav Kothari 150-144, 150-38, 150-60, 120-150, 82-150, 150-27, 152-54; Dhvaj Haria (Ind) bt Chit Ko Ko (Myn) 30-151, 153-0, 51-152, 152-0, 152-56, 87-151, 150-84, 151-101.
Pre-quarterfinals: Peter Gilchrist (Sing) bt Brijesh Damani (Ind) 152-0, 66-151, 150-47, 150-92, 98-150, 154-24; Dhvaj Haria bt B. Bhaskar 151-68, 152-28, 54-151, 150-11, 153-29; Htay bt Rupesh Shah 151-137, 151-45, 150-138, 150-145; Sourav Kothari bt Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (Tha) 150-146, 150-0, 136-150, 150-55, 150-0; Chit Ko Ko (Myn) bt Praprut Chaithanasakun (Tha) 150-143, 150-9, 110-150, 150-69, 150-82; Alok bt Robert Hall (Eng) 150-140, 150-91, 150-108, 80-150, 150-143; Sitwala bt Siddharth Parikh 56-150, 151-19, 3-151, 152-0, 151-37, 150-109; Advani bt Devendra Joshi 151-31, 152-5, 151-25, 150-139.
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