IBSF World Billiards 2010

21 AUGUST 2010

Session I : Thawat on winning streak; Geet back in form

Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (Thailand) continues on his winning streak and is focused to gain top seed position for the knockout stage, yet he has to play two more matches. Thawat has not yet lost a single game in the tournament. Today he played Dhruv Sitwala (India), beating him 3-0 with the help of modest breaks in all three games. Dhruv got a couple of chances but he was struggling to convert them into big breaks and missed the few chances he got in today�s match.

Geet Sethi came to arena with his last chance to remain in title race as he had to win against Aidan Murray of Ireland. After winning the lag, Geet started proceedings of the match. It appeared he is struggling, and on a score of 102 he missed out. Aidan got a chance and cleared the first game with a worthy break of 86.

In the second game Geet continued to struggle to retain the balls in position but somehow he managed to score two small breaks of 60 and 57 to level the match 1-1. With a break of 57 in this game, he gets his rhythm back. Next two games he finished very quickly with the breaks of 125 and 81 in third and fourth, displaying the well known postman�s knock to the spectators.

Englishmen Mike Russell, Billy Bousfield and Indian champ Pankaj Advani won their morning session matches losing one game each. Alok Kumar (India) wins comfortably 3-0 against the Korean, Chul Ho Hwang.

Peter Gilchrist (Singapore) went down fighting against Devendra Joshi (India) in the deciding frame. Joshi was in fine touch and smashed three century breaks of 127, 151 and 103 in first, third and fifth game respectively. Peter failed to produce good breaks in both the games he won.

Session II :

In the second session Kyaw Oo (Myanmar) started by winning the first two games against Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (Thailand) but could not save his match as he lost the next 3 games and match 2-3. Kyaw Oo scored breaks of 73 and 91 in first two games and then Thawat constructed three breaks of 73, 141 and 102 in the next three games to pocket the match.

Despite struggling with both the game and his health during the championship, Gilchrist�s two century breaks were praise worthy. While playing against Tae Hoon Jung of Korea, Peter smashed 57 in the first game followed with 111 and 152 in the next two games to seal the win in his favour.

The match between B. Bhaskar of India and Englishman Billy Bousfield was also an exciting one, with Bhaskar winning the first game then Bousfield hitting back in the next two. In the fourth game Bhaskar made a comeback and smashed 84 & 61 to level the match and forced Billy to play a decider. Billy fumbled on a score of 97, where Bhaskar smashing break of 106 to register the win.

In another exciting match between two Indians, Dhruv Sitwala and Devendra Joshi, Joshi needed a win in this match to stay in the title race. He started focusing to suit in the first game, smashing a break of 105. Dhruv sealed the second game in his favour but lost the third to Joshi. Joshi needed just one game to win, but Dhruv�s break of 90 forced him to play a decider. In the final game Dhruv�s fascinating 152 unfinished remained the break of the session. The last 30 points were scored only with a single red and many times from tough position.

Phil Mumford (England) reported ill and gave away walkover to Ashok Shandilya (India).

Session III : Rupesh fought well for top slot in group, though in vain.

Mike Russell (England) and Rupesh Shah (India) played their last league match for the top slot in Group A. Mike after winning the lag, asked Rupesh to start with white. After playing one safety shot, Mike tried a straight red pot, which he missed and luckily got a cannon from where he constructed 150 unfinished to advance 1-0. Second game, despite Rupesh's 81, Mike pocketed the game with a break of 64 gaining 2-0 lead. The third game was also looking to be in the pocket of Mike, but on a score of 51, he missed a drop cannon by a whisker. Rupesh got a chance to fight back and he did justice by smashing a 150 break and 143 in the next game to level the match. In the deciding game, Mike did not allow Rupesh to show his skills and with an unfinished 151, Mike wins the match and top-slot in Group A. Rupesh finished as No.2 in the Group.

Indian masters Geet Sethi and Pankaj Advani sailed smoothly 3-0 win over Min Hu Baek of Korea and Alok Kumar of India. Geet now has to wait for the result of match between Aidan Murray (Ireland) and Nay Thway Oo (Myanmar) to see if he is into the knock-out or not.

A setback for England as Phil Mumford did not turn up for his match due to illness and because he gave a second walkover; he is out from the Point Format championship.

Session IV : Players selected for Knock-out Stage

After the completion of 51 matches in two days of league stage, Top 16 players have been selected those are going play in knock-outs and will be eyeing on the World Billiards Title (Point Format). The sixteen players are:

Group A: Mike Russell (England); Rupesh Shah (India); Nay Thway Oo (Myanmar); Geet Sethi (India)

Group B: Praput Chaithanasakun; Ashok Shandilya (India); Sourav Kothari (India); Gary Oliver (New Zealand)

Group C: Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (Thailand); Kyaw Oo (Myanmar); Dhruv Sitwala (India); Peter Gilchrist (Singapore)

Group D: Pankaj Advani (India); Alok Kumar (India); B. Bhaskar (India); Chul Ho Hwang (Korea)

In Group A, Aidan Murray had to win 3-0 against Nay Thway Oo to be in and made Geet out of the championship but he failed to defeat Nay Thway Oo and lost to him 0-3. Because of this, Geet gets the berth as No.4 in the Group.

Similarly Peter Gilchrist had to win atleast two games against Thawat Sujaritthurakarn. Though he lost 3-2 but confirmed his berth for knock-outs.

Praput Chaithanasakun (Thailand) retained top slot of the Group defeating Ashok Shandialya (India) 3-0.

Knockout matches will start at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning.

Sourav Kothari outplayed Gary Oliver of New Zealand 3-0. Praput Chaithanasakun (Thailand) also defeated Phil Mumford of England 3-1.

The last match of the day created excitement as it reached the deciding game between Kyaw Oo (Myanmar) and Devendra Joshi (India). Despite making 75+ breaks in most of the games, Joshi lost the decider to Kyaw Oo 2-3. Losing the second game despite making a break of 125, Joshi charged himself up and won the next two games to level the match. In the decider, Kyaw Oo made 79 and a worthy 43 to win the mach 3-2.