JOIN USFancied Advani enters knockouts
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.