Dhruv Sitwala impresses with strong win in World Billiards

Martin Goodwill stunned reigning champion Sourav Kothari in the IBSF World Billiards Championship, while Pankaj Advani topped his group. Several Indian players advanced to the knockout stage after strong performances in the league matches

Hyderabad: Veteran cueist Martin Goodwill of England scored a shock win over reigning champion Sourav Kothari in the final Group ‘A’ league match of the IBSF World Billiards Championship in Carlow (Ireland) on Sunday.

In a match that lacked quality, Goodwill, 63, registered a nail-biting 276-275 victory to finish his league engagements with an all-win record. Despite the defeat, Kothari too made the knockout pre-quarterfinals with two wins from three matches.

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The fluency Kothari showed in his previous match, when he defeated Akhilesh Mohan of France 825-40, including a break of 515, was missing. He struggled to get going and made too many errors, allowing the Englishman a free run.

Elsewhere, Pankaj Advani, looking to regain the title, topped Group ‘B’ with three wins, all one-sided victories. In his final match, Advani outplayed South Korea’s Baek Minhu 785-161 with notable runs of 162, 88 and 389 in the 90-minute encounter.

Other Indians to join Advani and Kothari in the knockout last-16 stage were Dhruv Sitwala, Alok Kumar, Rupesh Shah, Shrikrishna S, Siddharth Parikh and Rafath Habib, all with two wins each. They were scheduled to play their final league matches later in the day.

Besides Advani, left-hander Sitwala has been the impressive Indian cueist on view. The Mumbaikar defeated Ireland’s Aonghus McAnally 621-169. He opened with a break of 203 and had further runs of 90 and 133.

Results (Indians unless mentioned):

Group A: Martin Goodwill (Eng) 276 (62, 66) bt Sourav Kothari 275 (81, 57); Kothari 825 (515, 212, 66) bt Akhilesh Mohan (Fra) 40.

Group B: Pankaj Advani 785 (162, 88, 389, 56, 60) bt Baek Minhu (Kor) 161 (51); Advani 902 (85, 55, 60, 74, 100, 131, 53, 83, 93, 54, 50) bt Mark Hill (Eng) 78.

Group C: Dhruv Sitwala 621 (203, 90, 133) bt Aonghus McAnally (Ire) 169; Alok Kumar 522 (69, 54) bt Carl-Walter Steiner (Aut) 184.

Group D: Rafath Habib 399 (62) bt Ciaran Doyle (Ire) 95; David Causier (Eng) 1049 (542, 101, 130, 131) bt Subrat Das 149.

Group E: Rupesh Shah 518 (71, 85, 96) bt Peter Tankard (Aus) 211; Robert Hall (Eng) 329 (53, 57, 59, 82) bt Rishabh Thakkar 250 (77).

Group F: Shrikrishna S 552 (137, 84) bt Joe Doheny (Ire) 202; Peter Sheehan (Eng) 833 (152, 223, 291, 62) bt Jagadesh Bhuvaneswaran 171 (61).

Group G: Dhvaj Haria 790 (92, 107, 103, 370) bt Aidan Murray (Ire) 109; Haria 830 (225, 51, 57, 96, 120, 175) bt Srinu Katipogu 98; Mike Russell (Eng) 440 (121, 52, 128) bt Katipogu 189 (60).