Advani storms into title round

Billiards Asian Championship: Takes on Gilchrist for top honours

Advani scored a 5-3 win in his semifinal encounter and will take on Singapore’s Peter Gilchrist in a repeat of last year’s final on Thursday.In the quarterfinal match earlier, Advani overcame a spirited challenge from Geet Sethi to clinch a place in the semifinals.
Sethi looked in good shape to oust the defending champion as he racked up the first two games 102-76 and 100-0, with breaks of 76 and 77, respectively.

Advani, a bit rusty to begin with, gathered some steam as the Bangalorean grabbed the third frame 104-0 with biggest break of the match (104). Sethi clinched the fourth frame (101-45) to go up 3-1 but Advani’s ability to stay focussed on the job did him the trick. The five-time world champion won the fifth and sixth frames to push the match to the decider which he sealed 102-71.

Gilchrist posted a 5-4 win over Thailand’s Praput Chaithanasakun in the other semifinal encounter but he had overcome a bigger challenge in the quarterfinal against Rupesh Shah. Rupesh, trailing 1-3, crawled back into contention and levelled the odds at three-a-piece.

Leading 64-4 in the decider, Rupesh looked set to stage an upset but Gilchrist managed to hold his nerve en route to his last-four berth.China’s Liu Chuang and Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon of Thialand will lock horns in the under-21 snooker final.

Results, semifinals: Pankaj Advani (Ind) bt Kyaw Oo (Mya) 5-3 (100 (64)-14, 18-100 (91), 100-7, 63-100, 19-101, 102 (102)-8, 101 (63)-0, 100 (89)-32); Peter Gilchrist (Sin) bt Praput Chaithanasakun (Tha) 5-4 (44-100, 100 (93)-22, 100 (100)-8, 9-101, 2-100 (93), 100 (83)-3, 15-100 (59), 101 (72)-2, 100 (58)-62).
Quarterfinals: Advani bt Geet Sethi (Ind) 4-3 (76-102 (76), 0-100 (77), 104 (104)-0, 45-101, 100-57, 100-44, 102 (55)-71); Gilchrist bt Rupesh Shah (Ind) 3-3 (100-92 (62), 101-54, 20-101 (95), 101 (98)-36, 13-101, 91 (55)-102, 100 (94)-64); Praput bt Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (Tha) 4-3 (101 (53)-14, 75-100, 100-75, 9-101, 103 (72)-58, 2-100 (61), 100-9); Kyaw (Mya) bt Ashok Shandilya (Ind) 4-0 (101 (78)-12, 101 (91)-20, 100-86 (52), 101 (64)-18).