Advani floors Gilchrist to reach semis

Four-time winner Pankaj Advani kept the Indian tri-colour flying high, flooring veteran Peter Gilchrist to storm into the semifinals of the 11th Asian Billiards Championship here on Friday.

Smarting from an ordinary 2011 where he failed to win an international title for the first time since 2004, the 26-year-old Advani produced a solid all-round to pack off Gilchrist 5-2 at the Club Tennis De Gaspar Dias.  Host’s Devendra Joshi also marched into the last-four stage, defeating former world champion and compatriot Rupesh Shah 5-3 in an evenly-contested match.

Former winner Praput Chaithanasukan accounted for reigning champion Alok Kumar, the Thai ace holding his nerve despite the Indian’s brilliance to eke out a 5-3 victory. In the fourth quarterfinal, Thailand’s Thawat Sujaritthurakarn ousted Dhruv Sitwala 5-1.

Results: Billiards: Quarterfinals: Pankaj Advani (Ind) bt Peter Gilchrist (Sin) 5-2 (100 (100)-0, 100 (54)-10, 101 (86)-36, 44-100, 100 (97)-2, 4-101(99), 100 (100)-76 (76)); Praput Chaithanasukan (Tha) bt Alok Kumar (Ind) 5-3 (0-101 (101), 19-100 (100), 100-46, 0-100 (100), 101-65, 101 (101)-0, 101 (81)-90 (81), 101 (65)-54); Devendra Joshi (Ind) bt Rupesh Shah (Ind) 5-3 (100 (83)-83 (81), 101 (55)-38, 51-101 (81), 101 (56)-51, 101 (86)-35, 3-101 (99), 2-104 (94), 101 (101)-2); Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (Tha) bt Dhruv Sitwala (Ind) 5-1 (100-0, 100 (100)-0, 62-7, 23-101 (73), 101 (53)-50, 102 (51)-94 (94)).

Under-21 snooker: Group A: Hossein Vafaei Ayouri (Ira) bt Hunain (Pak) 4-1 (97 (81)-4, 69-0, 79-1, 51-75 (57), 96 (58)-0); Lalit Dahiya (Ind) bt Marcus Lim Wei Jie (Sin) 4-1 (69 (41)-17, 8-46, 59-16, 74-52, 77-48). Group B: Noppon Saengkham (Tha) bt Aloysius Yapp (Sin) 4-0 (92 (62)-1, 58-30, 132 (132)-1, 111 (86)-5);  ML Laxman (Ind) bt Badr Obaid Khalifa (UAE) 4-0 (69-52, 53-39, 61-28, 58-28). Group H:  Lu Ming (Chn) bt Lalrina Renthlei (Ind) 4-1 (18-86 (58), 81-32, 73-14, 64-22, 59-28).