The semi-finals of the ONGC-IBSF World Billiards (Time Format) championship will be an all-Indian affair, after defending champion Pankaj Advani, eight-time World champion Geet Sethi, Rupesh Shah and Devendra Joshi made the grade at the Karnataka State Billiards Association in Bangalore on Monday.
In a close quarter-final, Advani defeated Sourav Kothari 1356-1293 after some anxious moments when the latter overtook him in the second session after trailing 627-509.
However, the young Bangalore cueist registered a break of 210, his highest in the match, on the 27th visit, to make it to the semis.
Eight-time winner Sethi, with a break of 334 on his 19th visit, sealed a semi-final berth, defeating Thailand's Thawat Sujaritthurakaran 1756-783.
In the other quarter-finals, former Asian champion Devendra Joshi beat Dhruv Sitwala 1108-1102 while Rupesh Shah overcame Peter Gilchrist of Singapore 1182-966.
In Tuesday's first semi-final, Sethi will take on Advani while the Joshi meets Rupesh Shah later.
Earlier in the day, Advani, Sethi, Joshi and Gilchrist stormed into the quarter-finals along with Sujaritthurakarn, Shah, Kothari and Sitwala.
Sethi trounced Suriya Suwannasingh 1892-727, his highest break being 272.
Advani showed the door to compatriot Shyam Jagtiani, winning 2036-869, England-born Gilchrist, who had a highest break of 354, had an easy time against Vietnam's Thanh Long Nguyen, winning 1660-767, and Sujaritthurakarn posted a narrow 958-832 victory over local lad B Bhaskar.
Results: (all Indians unless mentioned) pre-quarter-finals:
Geet Sethi 1892 (breaks/visit - 74/4, 148/13, 196/16, 154/19, 252/20, 272/21, 219/30, 265/32) bt Suriya Suwannasingh (Thailand) 727 (113/5, 165/8, 51/10, 60/22, 92/26); Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (Thailand) 958 (85/10, 116/24, 135/25, 96/46) bt B Bhaskar 832 (54/3, 235/29, 75/33); Sourav Kothari 1371 (100/2, 174/13, 126/14, 76/16, 88/22, 58/27, 107/35, 78/41, 76/53, 166/55) bt Thanh Binh Nguyen (Vietnam) 1086 (62/13, 83/15, 59/24, 133/34, 134/47); Pankaj Advani 2036 (300/2, 137/4, 140/9, 76/11, 130/13, 67/14, 55/18, 67/19, 62/21, 201/24, 121/27, 205/50) bt Shyam Jagtiani 869 (182/18, 65/33, 79/51); Peter Gilchrist (Singapore) 1660 (84/4, 153/9, 142/13, 60/17, 58/19, 54/21, 154/22, 354/34, 124/35, 110/47) beat Thanh Long Nguyen (Vietnam) 767 (146/18, 55/23, 69/42, 53/50); Rupesh Shah 1879 (169/3, 66/8, 301/9, 81/11, 341/19, 59/29, 103/31, 232/32, 91/44) bt Prem Prakash 792 (71/13, 61/14, 55/16, 62/18, 52/24, 167/28, 131/39); Dhruv Sitwala 1023 (64/6, 62/7, 83/14, 173/15, 126/21, 60/31, 107/45) bt Praprut Chaithanasakun (Thailand) 864 (254/36, 76/44, 79/46); Devendra Joshi (India) 1485 (126/4, 146/15, 66/19, 80/27, 216/31, 67/35, 87/43, 53/45, 109/54, 60/57, 75/61) bt Aidan Murray (Ireland) 717.