Advani, Sitwala, Rupesh in semis

India’s Pankaj Advani, Dhruv Sitwala and Rupesh Shah marched into the semifinals of the World Billiards Championship in Leeds, England.

While Advani and Sitwala will lock horns against each other in the last-four stage of the time format after registering contrasting victories, Rupesh Shah set up a semis date with Peter Gilchrist in the points format.

Advani, who lost 1-4 to Gilchrist in quarterfinals of the points format, made up for the disappointment with a 1647-705 drubbing of Rupesh. Sitwala, however, was made to sweat by compatriot Sourav Kothari before registering a thrilling 562-558 win.

Rupesh scored an easy 4-2 victory over Ashok Shandilya in his quarterfinal match.
Results (all quarterfinals): Points format: Peter Gilchrist bt Pankaj Advani 4-1 (74-150, 150-71, 150-8, 150-62, 150-104); Rupesh Shah bt Ashok Shandilya 4-2 (2-150, 150-124, 150-74, 60-150, 150-11, 150-50); Matthew Bolton bt Devendra Joshi 4-0 (150-21, 150-54, 150-0, 150-0); David Causier bt Martin Goodwill 4-1 (159-24, 150-89, 142-150, 150-116, 150-117).

Semifinal line-up: P Gilchrist vs Rupesh Shah; M Bolton vs D Causier.
Time format: Pankaj Advani: 1647 (96, 97, 213, 90, 140, 104, 62, 229, 50, 159, 82, 196, 67) bt Rupesh Shah: 705 (65, 89, 199); Dhruv Sitwala: 562 (164, 71, 93) bt Sourav Kothari: 558 (98,78,51,71,57); Mike Russell: 1345 (212, 145, 152, 165, 58, 482, 94) bt Geet Sethi: 739 (198, 78, 73, 86); Matthew Bolton: 927 (105, 59, 88, 58, 60, 95, 205) bt David Causier: 581 (97, 110, 85). Semifinal line-up: Pankaj Advani vs Dhruv Sitwala; Mike Russell vs Matthew Bolton.