Advani shines after losing opening outing at World billiards

Pankaj Advani lost his opening outing to defending champion Peter Gilchrist but later recovered and scored two straight victories in World Billiards Championship, in Leeds, on Tuesday.

The former World champion lost his way after winning the first two frames and went down 2-3 to the Singaporean ace in an interesting battle.

India's poster boy of cue sports, who has eight billiards crowns under his belt, then outplayed Adian Murray and Brain Harvey, scoring 3-0 victories over each of them.

Former Asian billiards champion Alok Kumar won all his matches 3-0, while Ahmedabad cueist Dhvaj Haria also won all his matches, dropping just a solitary frame.

All Indians in the fray cruised in the league stage and are half-way through to qualifying for the last-32.

The World Championship, which started on October 20, has 55 entries from eight countries. There are 11 cueists, with five cueists in each.

Results:

Group A: D.Rajkumar beat Wayne Doyle 3-1, beat Todd Hayward 3-2, lost Aditya Agarwal 0-3; Aditya Agarwal lost to David Causier 1-3, beat Todd Hayward 3-1.

Group B: Pankaj Advani lost to Peter Gilchrist 2-3, beat Adian Murray 3-0, beat Brain Harvey 3-0.

Group C: Jaiveer Dhingra beat Arthur Winn 3-0, beat Shane Bartellete 3-0.

Group D: Dhvaj Haria beat Steve Brookshah 3-1, beat Gaye Jones 3-0, beat Berrard French 3-0.

Group E: Siddarth Parikh beat Phil Mumford 3-1, beat Eddie Fielding 3-0.

Group F: V.Subramaniyam beat Adam Clark 3-0, beat Jamie Barkar 3-0; Alok Kumar beat Jamie Barkar 3-0, beat Adam Clark 3-0, beat Peter Atkinson 3-0.

Group H: Dhruv Sitwala beat Jonathan Marwood 3-0, beat Felix Knoll 3-0.

Group I: Rupesh Shah beat Carl Walter Steines 3-0, beat Ross Doyle 3-0; Nalin Patel beat Carl Walter 3-0, beat Ross Doyle 3-0, beat Robin Wilson 3-1.

Group J: Sourav Kothari beat Steve Lock 3-0, beat Devendra Joshi 3-2, beat Stephen Kershaw 3-0; Devendra Joshi beat Steve Lock 3-0.

Group K: Ashok Shandilya beat Phil Davis 3-0, beat Mark Hill 3-0, Arun Agarwal beat Phil Davis 3-0, beat Sushrut Pandia 3-1.

Image: Pankaj Advani