BANGALORE: Pankaj Advani is just a match away from emulating his Malta feat where he achieved a double in 2005. For the second time in five days, the young champion put it across a senior pro — Geet Sethi — and quite comprehensively at 1269-1003 to make the time format final of the ONGC-IBSF World billiards championship. In the other semifinal, Devendra Joshi outclassed Rupesh Shah 1228-820.
The KSBA is his home turf and Advani has a tremendous fan following. On Tuesday, spectators did not turn up in large numbers, but Advani with his impeccable record did ensure that they will do so on Wednesady. Sethi, an eight-time world billiards champion, cracked and never really recovered.
Not that Advani produced anything extraordinary but for a classy 397 in the first session of semifinals of four hours, split into two. But, in the end it was that break which tilted the scales in favour of the Bangalore player. Both Advani and Sethi looked scrappy and missed regulation 'pots'.
But if Sethi showed frustration at the simple misses, Advani did not and came up with sedentary breaks to keep nosing ahead. "I did not give up...and with about 18 minutes remaining and 300 points down I still had hopes of coming up with a big one. But it did not happen," admitted Sethi.
"Fatigue and pressure...it's sickening. Hats off to him for coming good when the chips were down...that's what champions are made off," said Sethi on his young nemesis.
No mental block
"There is no mental block playing Advani. It's very harsh," said Sethi, "for I beat him comprehensively a month ago at Leeds during the professional billiards. But, yes in the last two outings it's been a let down."
Joshi shows his class
Joshi, who had a poor run at the Nationals in Hyderabad early this year, had to fight his way through the qualifying rounds to make it to this championship. But, in both the points and time format, his class was evident.
Joshi took the initiative and came up with a century and a double (224) break in the first session to take a firm grip on the match. Astute with his top-table game, Joshi was impeccable in his potting and played some telling long shots as well to push back Shah.
"I am doing well here and with the table playing true for me, should be able to put up a worthy show on Wednesday," said Joshi.
The results (semifinals): Pankaj Advani 1269 (161, 397, 67, 165, 92) bt Geet Sethi 1003 (57, 182, 55, 90, 151); Devendra Joshi 1228 (104, 224, 127, 126, 168) bt Rupesh Shah 820 (103, 92, 91).