Pankaj Advani, Devendra Joshi in semis of Asian Billiards

Former champion Pankaj Advani and veteran Devender Joshi reigned supreme at the green baize to enter the semi-finals of the 11th Asian Billiards Championship here on Friday.

In the much awaited clash between two former world billiard champions, Pankaj, having done his homework before the match, produced a gem of a century break to gain early ascendancy over Peter Gilchrist of Singapore.

Continuing in the same vein, Pankaj had good breaks of 54 in the second and 86 in the third games in the process of taking a commanding 3-0 lead.

Gilchrist, still not out of the shock due to the defeat suffered at the hands of Thawat Thursday evening, was not able to find his usual rhythmic flow in the first three games. Even so, he did manage to get one back by prevailing over Pankaj in the fourth game.

Knowing fully well that he could not relax his grip at any stage, Pankaj again reached the desired level of concentration for a break of 97 to take the fifth game. Peter, however, striking a purple patch for once, compiled a break of 99 to close the gap to 2-4.

The seventh game saw Peter continuing his good form in the shape of a break of 76. Yet lapsing into errors, he gave a semblance of an opening to Pankaj who promptly got into his full stride unleashing an unbeaten century to clinch the game and match in style.

In another quarterfinal between two contenders from India, Joshi got the better of Rupesh Shah by 5-3 to make the last-four stage at the Clube Tennis De Gaspar Dias Miramar.

Joshi took an early 2-0 lead but Rupesh rallied well to snatch the third. Nevertheless, Joshi who was a picture of concentration, picked up the fourth and fifth games for an unassailable lead of 4-1.

Rupesh not the one to give in so easily, fought back with a degree of vengeance to take the sixth and seventh games. Even so, Joshi struck peak form to score an unfinished break of 101 to complete the tally.

Having surprised Gilchrist in his earlier league encounter, Thawat Sujaritthurakarn from Thailand was steadiness personified in his match with Dhruv Sitwala from India.

Dhruv had no clue as to what hit him in the process of the Thai taking the first three games on a trot. Keeping his patience some how, Dhruv was able to wrest the fourth game, but that was just about all.

Thawat took the fifth game on the run of play giving one chance to Dhruv for a possible comeback in the sixth game. But having collected a break of 94, Dhruv made a colossal error when missing a regulation 'long loser' in the left hand side top pocket, the cue ball missing the pocket and the resultant rebound missing the opponents ball too, for a possible resultant cannon, just by a whisker.

Thawat displaying an admirable temperament closed the game and match with a superb 51 break.

In another match, down by 1-3 games in the best of nine quarterfinal, former Asian and world billiards champion, Praput Chaithanasukan playing against the defending champion, Alok Kumar from India, grafted a break of 52 in the fifth, clawing back into reckoning by taking the game.

Praput was in full flow using the top table method of scoring, to advantage, for an unfinished break of 101 drawing level at 3-3. Praput pocketed the seventh and eighth games to seal the issue in his favour.