Kothari upsets Pankaj Advani, Gilchrist storms into semi-finals

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 here on Wednesday.

Kothari played his heart and never allowed Advani a comeback,prevailing 1000-644 in his last and 38th visit. 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.

In another quarterfinal match, Gilchrist made his way into the semi-finals by defeating Robert Hall in an almost one-sided affair. 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.