Advani stunned in World Billiards
Reigning national champion Sourav Kothari pulled off a big upset by shocking 10-time world champion Pankaj Advani in the quarterfinals of the IBSF World Billiards Championship in Long-Up format.
Kothari never allowed Advani a comeback,prevailing 1000-644. After his ninth visit, Sourav was trailing 256 against Advani’s 352 but the national champion posted a break of 181 in his 18th visit to race past Advani.
Advani spilled a good opportunity in his 19th visit as he could only script a break of 65 points, not enough to get past Kothari. The 28th visit of Kothari ended the hopes of Advani as the national champion took a substantial lead with a break of 293 points. His score read 949 against Pankaj’s 538. In his 28th visit, Pankaj could manage a break of 106 and took his score to 644, trailing 305, which literally pushed him out of the tournament.
Earlier, Kothari had defeated Jaiveer Dhingra 751-432 in the last-16 stage. Advani had stormed into the quarterfinals after defeating compatriot Alok Kumar 751-547 in a last-16 match. In another quarterfinal match, multiple-time world champion Peter Gilchrist made his way into the semifinals by defeating the Englishman Robert Hall.
Robert in first two visits scored two breaks of 48 and 45 followed by 91 to score total 186 but after that Gilchrist ruled with breaks of 164, 83, 93, 144, 13 and 87 to take a giant leap towards win.
Hall tried to make a comeback but his break ended at 131 and Gilchrist posted break of 97 followed by another 100 to close the proceedings 1000-347 and confirm his berth in the semis.
I-League champions Bengaluru FC will play against Jordanian club Al Wehdat SC in their AFC Champions League Preliminary Stage 2 fixture in an away tie on January 31.
Unlike the last two seasons, a tweak in the format saw Bengaluru playing out of the West Zone.
The winner of the tie between Bengaluru and Jordan League champions Al Wehdat will face Al Wahda of UAE in the play-off stage to be played on February 7.
The winner of the play-off match will qualify for the AFC Champions League Group Stage.
Defeat in either of the games will see Bengaluru FC, the AFC Cup runners-up, drop down to the group stages of the AFC Cup. An improved member ranking for India meant that Bengaluru FC need not compete in the preliminary stage 1, needing them to win two single-legged ties to make it the group stages.