JOIN USJoining Advani in the last-four stage at the Northern Snooker Centre is five-time winner Geet Sethi, Sourav Kothari, Rupesh Shah and Shruv Sitwala. Advani, who had already sealed his quarterfinal berth on Thursday, defeated Kolkata’s Kothari 965-457 to top Group A with four wins out of four matches.
Nine-time champion Mike Russell, Singapore’s Peter Gilchrist and Englishman David Causier were the others who made it to the knock-out stage.
Advani, who had last year created history by becoming the second Indian after Sethi to win the World Pro title, was too much to handle for Kothari. Advani posted breaks of 255, 128 and 103, securing his victory in 21 visits to the green baize.
Earlier on Thursday, five-time champion Sethi oozed class in his 1199-223 defeat of Englishman Matthew Sutton. The 49-year-old veteran conjured a break of 517 – the biggest of the tournament so far --- and also had an unfinished 303 on his 15th visit. After the completion of the group stage matches on Friday, re-seedings were done for the quarterfinalists.
Results: On Friday: Group A: Pankaj Advani (Ind): 965 (255, 128, 103, 74, 60, 85, 66) bt Sourav Kothari (Ind): 457 (52, 107, 89, 63); Martin Goodwill (Eng): 906 (124, 63, 73, 55) bt Sushrut Pandia (Ind): 239 (46).
Group B: Siddharth Parikh (Ind): 416 (163, 61) bt Rupesh Shah (Ind): 252 (99); Matthew Sutton (Eng): 705 (58, 98, 78, 66, 66) bt Bem French (Eng): 242. Group C: Dhruv Sitwala (Ind): 430 (51, 94) bt Mark Hirst (Eng): 429 (56, 94, 64); Ashok Shandilya (Ind): 566 (88, 62, 207) bt Phil Mumford (Eng): 554 (102 148, 110). Group D: Mike Russell (Qat): 820 (191, 117, 183, 132, 88) bt Gary Rogers (Eng): 338 (50); Ian Williamson (Eng): 375 (115, 67 (unf)) bt Robert Marshall (Eng): 321 (52, 60). On Thursday: Group A: S Kothari: 718 (206, 96, 58, 86) bt S Pandia: 189; M Goodwill : 500 (73, 184, 85) bt Devendra Joshi (Ind): 493 (207). Group B: S Parikh: 964 (99, 105, 89, 121, 97, 86, 90, 82, 72) bt B French: 201; Geet Sethi (Ind): 1199 (163, 51, 67, 517, 53, 303(unf)) bt M Sutton: 223 (54). Group C: M Hirst: 560 (58, 68, 95, 87, 52) bt A Shandilya: 386 (160, 80); David Causier (Eng): 1150 (87, 96, 154, 76, 68, 236, 54) bt P Mumford: 289 (93).
Group D: G Rogers: 368 (55) bt I Williamson: 277; Peter Gilchrist (Sin): 674 (129, 173, 53, 110) bt R Marshall: 422 (70, 75, 63).