Favourite Pankaj Advani and the determined Dhruv Sitwala aced their respective groups while youngster Dhvaj Haria gave an ample exhibition of his talent in the IBSF World Billiards Championship (long-up format) here on Tuesday.
Advani, the defending long-up format champion who posted three wins from as many encounters on the opening day, crushed a hapless Akhilesh Mohan of France 504-30 in Group A to clinch the top seeding for the knockout pre-quarterfinals starting on Wednesday at the KSBA hall.
Sitwala, the 2015 Asian Billiards champion and two-time World Championship runner-up, looked in good nick as he posted three good wins on the day. He first swatted aside Iranian Sasan Lashkari 501-145, then beat Nalin Patel 500-192 before capping off his day with a scrappy 502-418 win over S Shrikrishna to top Group D.
Haria, the 23-year-old Gujarati who specialises in billiards and is slowly climbing up the ranks, started the day on a disappointing note after losing a marathon tussle 485-502 to two-time world champion and favourite Peter Gilchrist. The southpaw, however, bounced back in quick time, using that narrow defeat as a catalyst rather than a nullifier to flatten seasoned campaigner Siddharth Parikh 501-315 to emerge as the surprise Group B winner.
Parikh, who upset Gilchrist in his opening match on Monday and looked like he may top the group after winning an attritional battle against Alok Kumar 501-442 earlier in the day, sadly had to settle for third spot behind Gilchrist, thanks to the sole defeat versus Haria.
Bengaluru’s B Bhaskar, a huge underachiever, gave himself plenty of confidence for the knockouts after scoring three wins on the day, including a brilliant 500-121 defeat of Sourav Kothari, to top Group C. In the other two matches, the 45-year old beat American Ajeya Prabhakar 500-85 and Aung Htay of Myanmar 500-110.
The affable Bhaskar, who has threatened to walk away with the spoils on many a occasion before coming a cropper in the business end, bossed his game against Kothari, a two-time National billiards champion. Right from the start when he composed an 108-point break, Bhaskar completely dominated the proceedings against Kothari, who struggled to find his rhythm and missed regulation pots.
Five-time national championship runner-up Bhaskar did suffer a lapse in concentration in the match, missing a couple of sitters, but by then he had things under control, holding a 250-point lead. Kothari, coming after a marathon tussle against Robert Hall where he can consider himself lucky to have come out unscathed, just didn't have the energy to make a comeback. Bhaskar then nailed a 93-point victory to confirm top spot in his group.
Kothari, however, ended a roller-coaster day on a high, smashing the tournament's highest break so far — 315 — to blast past veteran Devendra Joshi 500-272. While the win boosted Kothari’s belief, it meant the end of the road for Joshi who managed to win only one encounter in an immensely disappointing campaign.
Results: Group A: Soheil Vahedi (Irn) bt Shankar Rao (Ind) 503 (59, 86, 69) - 263 (51); Pankaj Advani (Ind) bt Akhilesh Mohan (Fra) 504 (100, 105, 58, 182) - 30; Rupesh Shah (Ind) bt S Vahedi 500 (51, 99, 59, 77) - 244 (64); S Rao bt A Mohan 500 (50) - 317.
Group B: Peter Gilchrist (Sing) bt Dhvaj Haria (Ind) 502 (54, 156, 61) - 485 (134, 56); Siddharth Parikh (Ind) bt Alok Kumar (Ind) 501 (89, 89, 68) - 442 (51, 86, 72, 57); A Kumar bt Ben Judge 501 (55, 63) - 176; D Haria bt S Parikh 501 (88, 89, 206 unf) - 315 (94, 53, 57).
Group C: B Bhaskar (Ind) bt Ajeya Prabhakar (US) 500 (88, 57, 59, 121, 153) - 85; Sourav Kothari (Ind) bt Robert Hall (Eng) 502 (111, 98) - 447 (158, 63); Aung Htay (Mmr) bt Devendra Joshi (Ind) 501 (99, 66, 138) - 137 (69); R Hall bt D Joshi 500 (63, 98, 152) - 491 (101, 64, 68, 175); B Bhaskar bt S Kothari 500 (108, 85, 93, 119) - 121; A Htay bt A Prabhakar 500 (50, 64, 75, 52, 78) - 168 (73); B Bhaskar bt A Htay 500 (173, 117, 57, 103) - 110; S Kothari bt D Joshi 500 (315) - 272 (83); R Hall bt A Prabhakar 501 (88, 78, 54, 66) - 241.
Group D: Nalin Patel (Eng) bt Jaiveer Dhingra (Ind) 501 (104, 68, 109) - 362 (78, 51, 57); Dhruv Sitwala (Ind) bt Sasan Lashkari (Irn) 501 (103, 73, 62, 87) - 145; Chit Ko Ko (Mmr) bt S Shrikrishna (Ind) 501 (151, 67, 73, 78) - 347 (114, 102); S Shrikrishna (Ind) bt Sasan Lashkari (Irn) 500 (58) - 173; D Sitwala bt N Patel 500 (108, 77, 178, 55) - 192; C Ko Ko bt J Dhingra 501 (61, 73) - 414 (88, 64, 71); J Dhingra bt S Lashkari 501 (113, 111, 53) - 50; D Sitwala bt S Shrikrishna 502 (94, 57, 79, 56 unf) - 418 (51, 50, 69); C Ko Ko bt N Patel 500 (61, 205) - 332 (64, 69).
Last 16 draw: Pankaj Advani vs Alok Kumar; Jaiveer Dhingra vs Sourav Kothari; Chit Ko Ko vs Aung Htay; Shankar Rao vs Dhvaj Haria; B Bhaskar vs S Shrikrishna; Siddharth Parikh vs Rupesh Shah; Peter Gilchrist vs Soheil Vahedi; Robert Hall vs Dhruv Sitwala.
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