Mixed fortunes for Geet Sethi

Aiming for his sixth title, India's ace cueist Geet Sethi shrugged off an early loss to beat Robert Hall on Wednesday and end day one of the 2009 World Professional Billiards Championship on a high.

Sethi made a disappointing start to the day after losing 383-629 to compatriot Dhruv Sitwala in his opening encounter. However, Sethi put the loss behind him and came back well to beat England's Hall 1329-206 in Leeds, England.

Sitwala, who was runner-up in the recently concluded Yorkshire Billiards Open Classic at Bradford, cracked a brilliant break of 183 in the fifth frame to script the win over Sethi.

Devender Joshi scored a convincing 615-237 win over Ian Williamson but his compatriot Sourav Kothari was not that lucky having lost both his matches.

Korthari lost his first match 394-413 to England's Martin Goodwill and followed it with a 333-779 defeat against compatriot B Bhaskar.

IBSF World billiards champion Pankaj Advani comfortably defeated Hall 787-394 in his only match of the day.

Title favourite and defending world champion, Qatar's Mike Russell, won both his games to claim top spot on the points table.

He defeated England's Ian Williamson 889-269 in his opening match and then got the better of India's Rupesh Shah 945-211 in his second.