Advani, who had last year created history by becoming the second Indian after Geet Sethi to win the elusive World Pro title, suffered an unexpected defeat at the hands of Sitwala, who compiled three century breaks (118, 109 and 161) in his 32 visits to the table to reign supreme at the green baize.
Advani, on the other hand, failed to score even a single century break during his two hour stay at the table with his highest break accounting for 91.
Dhruv played very confidently and with consistency. He went ahead by 360 points with only 30 minutes left on the clock. Advani tried hard to cut down the lead but fell short with a break of 184 and lost by 115 points. In the other quarterfinal of the day, five-time winner Geet Sethi, making his 19th appearance at the event, scored an emphatic 959-445 win over Singapore’s Peter Gilchrist to sail into the semifinals of the event.
Sethi will now lock horns with Sitwala in an all-Indian last-four clash on Saturday. Sethi came out with two century breaks including one accounting for 267 in his 35 visits while Gilchrist managed to score none.
In the other two quarterfinal clashes, Sourav Kothari went down to Englishman David Causier while nine-time champion Mike Russell swatted aside Rupesh Shah.
While Kothari slumped to a 499-1356 defeat, Shah suffered a 496-995 loss.
Results, quarterfinals: Dhruv Sitwala (Ind): 723 (81, 118, 71, 109, 161) bt Pankaj Advani (Ind): 608 (91, 64, 69, 184); Geet Sethi (Ind): 959 (267, 62, 122, 60, 53) bt Peter Gilchrist (Sin): 445 (62, 62, 97); David Causier (Eng): 1356 (112, 195, 125, 170, 178, 185, 97, 84) bt Sourav Kothari (Ind): 499 (98, 79, 115); Mike Russell (Qat): 995 (71, 84, 90, 589) bt Rupesh Shah: 496 (63, 72, 59, 79, 59).
