IBSF World Billiards Championship: Pankaj Advani, Sourav Kothari seal quarterfinal berths

New Delhi: India’s ace cueist Pankaj Advani booked his place in the quarterfinals of the IBSF World Billiards Championship defeating compatriot Alok Kumar with a score of 750 points against 547 in the last-16 match of the Long-Up format in Bengaluru.

Pankaj shall take on on another Indian player and current national champion Sourav Kothari, who reached the quarterfinals defeating Jaiveer Dhingra.

Alok made early inroads in the match just from his second visit itself with the break of 99 points. He stuck his reputation of being a tough contender by posting two other breaks of 69 each in his third and fourth visit, which helped him take a lead of 200 points over Pankaj.

Pankaj then scored small and effective breaks regularly after he sketched a flawless break of 100 points in his fifth visit. In his fifth visit, he amassed 130 points andaccelerated his score by posting another break of 157 points.

Alok made a comeback of sorts with three breaks of 42, 48 and 99 to reduce the lead but couldn’t do much as Pankaj covered the remaining points by posting 38 and 31 in subsequent visits.

In another knockout match, Sourav defeated Dhingra 750 against 432.

Sourav was in good form and got on the job from second visit itself by posting first break of 77 followed by a massive 208 in 13th visit to leave Dhingra way behind.

Though Dhingra tried to recover with a break of 89 points but Sourav rapidly posted another break of 133 points to widen the gap and finally closed the proceedings to step into the quarterfinals.

PTI