Three days after they last met each other in the finals of the 150-Up competition, India’s Pankaj Advani and England’s Mike Russell will face off once more, this time for a spot in the Long-Up final of the IBSF World Billiards Championship at the Al Arabi Sports Club Indoor Hall today.
Advani, who had picked up his 13th world billiards title when he won the final on Sunday against Russell, knocked out defending champion Peter Gilchrist of Singapore in the quarter-finals yesterday.
Armed with breaks of 391, 257, 86, 80 and 55, Advani amassed 1000 points to Gilchrist’s 796 in yesterday’s quarter-final
Advani was in commanding form since the start of the match. He posted a first break of 391 points to take a handsome lead. He then stitched up another break of 257 to leave the English-born Singaporean way behind.
Gilchrist also had few breaks (69, 99, 104 and 166) in between but that wasn’t enough to catch up with the 32-year-old from the Indian city of Bengaluru.
When everyone was expecting a quick closure of the match, Gilchrist made a last-ditch attempt with a phenomenal recovery break. However, before he could reach a comfortable position, he hit a thick for cannon and missed that to end the break on 296 points. Thereafter, Advani scored the required 83 points to step in to the semi-finals.
Russell confirmed his berth in the medals round ousting Myanmar’s Aung Htay by a huge margin.
The 48-year-old Englishman exhibited some excellent billiards and crafted breaks of 344, 219, 278 to reach 1000-point mark in around 90 minutes. Whereas Aung Htay managed to score a single break of 72 points in between to settle for 175 only.
In the other quarter-final, England’s Robert Hall ousted the other 2016 Long-Up finalist, India’s Sourav Kothari, to set up his last-four match with Myanmar’s Nay Thway Oo.
Thirty three-year-old Hall had breaks of 206, 212 and 99 to his name as he reached the 1000 mark, while his opponent, Kothari, had 746 to his name, courtesy three 100-plus breaks of 170, 146 and 110.
Hall’s opponent Thway, beat another Indian, Dhruv Sitwala, in yesterday’s quarter-final 1000-875.
While Sitwala managed to craft as many as five 50-plus breaks, including one of 186, Thway managed to eke out the win.
While the semi-final will be a race to 1,250, the final will be a race to 1,500.
RESULTS
Last 12
*Aung Htay (Myanmar) beat Siddharth Parikh (India) 750-683
*Peter Gilchrist (Singapore) beat Dhvaj Haria (India) 750-657
*Nay Thway Oo (Myanmar) beat Rupesh Shah (India) 750-555
*Sourav Kothari (India) beat Chit Ko Ko (Myanmar) 750-535
Quarter-finals
*Robert Hall (England) beat Sourav Kothari (India) 1000-746
*Mike Russell (England) beat Aung Htay (Myanmar) 1000-175
*Pankaj Advani (India) beat Peter Gilchrist (Singapore) 1000-796
*Nay Thway Oo (Myanmar) beat Dhruv Sitwala (India) 1000-875
SCHEDULE
Semi-final (10am)
* Pankaj Advani (India) vs Mike Russell (England)
*Nay Thway Oo (Myanmar) vs Robert Hall (England)
Final (5pm)
